Down With UP

My husband and I saw an add on TV last night for a new series called "Baby Borrowers." Babies and toddlers are turned over to teen couples - to give them an idea of what it takes to care for a baby/tot. The first thing out of my mouth when I saw the ad was, "Where are they getting the children to turn over to the teens? What parent in their right mind would volunteer their little one for this show?" Today, I got an email about it from an unlikely source - ZERO TO THREE. This organization is pro universal preschool (institutionalizing little kids in public preschoools) - yet look what they have to say about "Baby Borrowers" below.

Will wonders never cease? I applaud ZERO TO THREE for taking this stand. Now, I wish they'd take their own advice and quit banging the universal preschool drum.

"It's not TV, it's birth control" is how NBC promotes its new reality series "Baby Borrowers." On June 25th, the show will be launched on national television as an "intriguing new social experiment that asks five diverse teenage couples to fast-track to adulthood by setting up a home, getting a job and becoming caring parents." Unfortunately, the NBC series exploits very young children in the pursuit of entertainment.

The babies and toddlers participating in this series will be separated from their parents and caregivers for three days. Unfamiliar teenagers will take care of them during this time. This setup can be very harmful for the babies and toddlers involved.

For the past 80 years, many studies have shown unequivocally that babies and toddlers suffer when they are exposed to this kind of prolonged separation from family and left with people that they do not know or love.

As all parents know, babies and toddlers are very distressed by separation. They cry, cling, and search for their parents. The longer the separation, the more upset they become. Some children are unable to sleep and refuse to eat. The responses routinely last long past the child's reunion with the parent. Prolonged separations heighten young children's separation anxiety and damage their trust that their parents will be available to protect and care for them. Children can become angry and rejecting of their parents after being reunited with them, damaging the fabric of the child-parent relationship.

These findings have become the basis for a new science of early childhood. A robust body of early childhood development and brain research clearly confirms the critical nature of early development. It is a time when young children form attachments with parents and caregivers, develop security and a sense of self, and learn what to expect from the world around them. Studies show that babies and toddlers need to feel safe and secure in order to form a positive sense of self, to form healthy relationships, and to feel confident to explore their world. This sense of security is dependent on the availability and stability of their trusted primary caregivers. Being separated for a three-day period from a parent or trusted, familiar adult, and being thrust into the care of a total stranger who has no experience with the child how he or she is comforted, likes to be fed, held, etc.—and who has no experience caring for young children at all, can be very stressful for the child.

As a "safeguard," NBC has hired a nanny to be nearby in case there are concerns. However the nanny is no more familiar to that child than the two strangers who will be caring for him for three days. The nanny does not know him or what his signals mean—such as what he needs when he cries out in the middle of the night, or how he shows he is hungry, tired, or is overwhelmed and needs a break from play. Moreover, even though the parents of these young children are watching via closed-circuit television, the babies are not aware of that and have no way of knowing how long the parents will be gone.

Legitimate social experiments are not conducted on national television or on reality shows. "Baby Borrowers" may have a catchy theme, but it exploits young children with potential harmful consequences. This is no social experiment. It is an extremely misguided endeavor that puts at risk our most vulnerable citizens, young children who need our love and protection.

We welcome your feedback on our ZERO TO THREE Alert at tsalyers@zerotothree.org.

ZERO TO THREE: National Center for Infants, Toddlers, and Families 2000
M St. NW Suite 200 Washington, DC 20036 (800) 899-4301 (703) 661-1500

Labels: baby borrowers, NBC, parents, preschool, zero to three

In May, 2007 the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released guidelines advising all pediatricians to tell parents not to let their babies watch TV. Apparently, on any given day in America, 68% of infants (ages 0-2) watch television - and 20% watch TV in their own bedrooms! Their parents' education, ethinicity and level of income did not make a difference.

In a blog by Dr. Thomas Armstrong, author of The Myth of ADD and the newly released, The Human Odyssey, he states that only 6% of the parents of children from ages 0-2 were aware of the guideline to turn off the TV. Armstrong makes the case to get the message out -- so more parents can protect their babies from the damage caused by watching television. Here are some excerpts from Armstrong's blog:

Here's the problem... The baby's brain is a veritable thicket of dendrites or brain connections that are strengthened or weakened depending in part upon what kinds of environmental stimuli she receives. ...the most important thing for her wellbeing and survival is that she spend a lot of time interacting with the real world, not watching a fake world.

Television, for all it is cracked up to be by media people and educators who should know better (e.g. "it can be very educational" they claim), does not have visual richness (it's made up of pixels, not real substances), nor does it have auditory richness (infants are particularly sensitive to the hum of electronics, and digital music is no replacement for live music), and of course, importantly, there are no opportunities for hands-on interaction (a joy stick for baby is no substitute for baby's tactile and kinesthetic curiosity about the world), and above all, there is no human contact in watching TV.

...This is not a good thing for baby, nor is it good for society...

You wouldn't leave them out on a busy highway. You wouldn't leave them in a room with a rabid pit bull. You wouldn't leave them in a room with medicine bottles and electric sockets laying around. So, don't let them watch TV. TV is the electronic equivalent of all of these other things, only instead of inflicting physical damage, the damage is subtle cognitive, emotional, social, neurological corrosion that may not even be apparent until years later. ...

I took the liberty of cutting and pasting some of the Guidelines from the AAP. Please pass this information along to anyone who will listen. Tell them not to let their babies watch TV:

• Discourage television viewing for children younger than 2 years, and encourage more interactive activities that will promote proper brain development, such as talking, playing, singing, and reading together.
• Remove television sets from children's bedrooms.
• Limit children's total media time (with entertainment media) to no more than 1 to 2 hours of quality programming per day.
• Monitor the shows children and adolescents are viewing. Most programs should be informational, educational, and nonviolent.
• View television programs along with children, and discuss the content. Two recent surveys involving a total of nearly 1500 parents found that less than half of parents reported always watching television with their children.
• Use controversial programming as a stepping-off point to initiate discussions about family values, violence, sex and sexuality, and drugs.
• Use the VCR or DVD player wisely to show or record high-quality, educational programming for children.
• Encourage alternative entertainment for children, including reading, athletics, hobbies, and creative play.

Labels: Armstrong, parents, preschool, television