Parents who’ve introduced screen time, when did you start?

People may judge me but we introduced screen time at 3 weeks to my little boy. He absolutely loves music and noise and I found there was very little to entertain him otherwise! We watch calm bunny on YouTube, their sensory series is so good. He watches maybe couple of them a week?

We think since he’s watched them he’s become to good at following objects with his eyes, becoming fixated on something and dances to the music. I know screen time isn’t for everyone but I think educational screen time is! Especially in this day and age. Our boy loves it x

I let my 2 have screen time. But from a younger age it's only nursery rhymes or cbeebies. My first is 5 and my biggest regret is buying him a tablet. His attitude changed so now we really limit how much he is on it. YouTube is also banned from his tablet as bad videos kept appearing. Since this he is really good. We don't allow screen time unless we're at home either which is not a lot now due to school, work and childminders x

So with my daughter who is now almost 4, I always had the tv on in the background with my things on. She probably wasnt looking at a screen until after 6 months or so. It was probably around 1 that she had tv on. However she was playing with toys and glanced here and there. Now she is 4, she still has tv, probably too much some days but she is in nursery 3 days a week, grandparents once a week, I take her to playgroup, swimming and her clubs. Then we are out at least one of the days at the weekend.

My son is now 17mo. He's always had the tv on because daughter or I have it on. He's happy to play and go out still. He also goes to playgroup, swimming and to nursery and grandparents the same as daughter. If I ever saw that they were zombies, juat wanted the tv, didnt want to play then i would take it away but ive seen no problem.

Also the programmes daughter has watched have helped with speech, signing and imaginative play.

There is a difference with putting the tv on and having it parent your child with no

Interaction to interacting while the tv is on ie singing and dancing or putting it on for 30 mins or so to have a break, get something done. X

I'm not here to judge anyone. The evidence is that screentime is damaging for babies under two.
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2026/jun/27/screen-time-damage-under-twos-development-study

https://www.1001criticaldays.com/article/screen-time-research

It can lead to speech delay, poor attention span, reduced social skills in infants. What is quiet sad is that babies learn to sooth themselves with a screen, rather than a parent or self soothing. I think the evidence is only out there's and we haven't seen all of the long term effects of adults been brought up with screens as babies.

I introduced TV very early. Probably around 3 months. It was just fancy fruits or the under the sea aquarium type YouTube videos.
She's now 14 months and loves ms Rachel, miss apple and ms moni. She has learnt so much from them! She has recently started nursery and they commented on her signing (more, eat ect), I did not teach her any of that! It was all from the TV.
We put bluey on in the background but isn't really interested in actual children's TV shows yet.
She also knows a lot of her animals and the noises they make. She knows a lot of words for her age (in my opinion!). X

We did none until age 2, then kept it very low since then. She’s 6 now and watches maybe 20 minutes twice a week. I’m very happy with our decision!

We have never had background TV but we have short shows that we actively watch. Maybe starting around his first birthday we might watch an episode or two of Baby Club or Mr Tumble on ceebeebies which is about 15 mins I think and we would only do it occasionally once a week.
We watch a bit more now he is just about to turn 3 but still don't do background noise TV, YouTube, no iPads or phones and no totally free choice/unsupervised. On 2/3 mornings a week he watches about 30-45 mins while I get ready and do chores which is the only 'routine' time he watches. If we have had a big busy day out and he's tired he might watch a bit while we get dinner ready. That happens maybe once a week. He likes Thomas the Tank Engine, Puffin Rock, Bluey, JoJo and Gran Gran, Stinky and Dirty, Giant Jack, Tractor Ted, Percy Park keeper.
He talks about what he's seen, will explain things to us, use new vocab he's heard and will use the characters or storylines in his play. He also loves stories and audio books of the characters.

We have started allowing 2 episodes of Bluey a week after my daughters 2nd birthday. We told her in our house you watch the number of episodes for your age in a week.