With families spending more and more time every day watching television, the effects have spread to babies as well. Many people have wondered if television is harmful to infants, and if it is, how much is too much?

Many pediatricians recommend against letting babies watch television, but it happens quite often anyway. Take a walk through the electronics section at the local store and you’ll see lots of products targeted towards infants.

There are more and more videos popping up all the time that are specifically made for babies under the age of two. Parents have realized that babies enjoy television and that it can calm them down and occupy them. But should you limit your baby’s television watching?

There are many factors that contribute to whether or not babies should be allowed to watch television. Before you discuss the amount of television a baby should watch, you should first consider the type of programming. Some shows completely fail to provide any kind of useful entertainment, such as cartoons.

Fortunately, there are also educational videos for babies. These are much safer and can actually teach knowledge and skills that will be useful as the baby grows up. Some of these educational programs teach babies to read, speak different languages, or recognize sign language.

In fact, it hasn’t been proven that television is harmful to babies under two years old as long as the time spent watching television is controlled and the programs are educational. Many parents feel that their children have grown intellectually through educational programs for babies.

Television should never be considered a replacement for the education that a baby receives from interacting with his or her parents, but it can certainly be helpful when you need some time to accomplish tasks that require the baby to behave. Thanks to educational programming, babies can still expand their minds while their parents do chores around the house.

Still, the upper limit for healthy television viewing in babies is about an hour a day, so take care not to allow your baby to watch too much. It’s also best to separate this viewing time into two segments of a half-hour each.

The babies who are most harmed by television are the ones who are allowed to sit in front of the set all day. As with many things in life, moderation is the way to go.