Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Cheap trick

I swore I wouldn't let the twins watch TV until they were at least 2 years old. But the other day I was at a friend's house who has a 3 year-old and she put in one of his old Baby Einstein videos for the twins to watch so we could chat. I begrudgingly let her; I, too, wanted to chat as I hadn't seen her for a while.

Needless to say, the twins were transfixed. What is the secret ingredient to these videos that makes babies go deer-in-headlights for 30 minutes straight? I wish I knew, I would be rich!

Anyway, what struck me was how well Drake sat while watching the video. He sat there, steady as a post, in his prop sitting position, head up, for at least 20 minutes!

His therapists and I have been brainstorming ways to strengthen his upper back and the back of his neck and to get him to bear more weight on his arms. We have decided prop/side sitting is the best bet, as he hates tummy time now that he can roll right out of it. He is great at prop/side sitting, but he tires or gets bored and lets his head hang and then his arms collapse and he lies on the floor in some kind of yoga pose I could never attempt.

So, today I was at Babies R Us and I saw some Baby Einstein videos. I couldn't help myself. I bought one. I put it on when I got home, got Drake into a HANDS and KNEES position (we've been working on this advanced move), turned on the video, and voila, he held that stationary crawling position for like 5 minutes! With his head up to see the TV! When he tired of that, I put him in prop sitting and he watched the rest of the video -- for like 20 more minutes!

I think I'll be buying a few more of these videos.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

When mine were babies a video series came-out named "Baby Songs". I grudgingly allowed the first showing, and then let my first born watch once a day while I really needed to do something. I believe the woman who started the Einstein series is now rich.

I'll have to do a post on tv watching, as there are drawbacks to watching for young children. Try to set limits that work for your family and keep to the limits you set.
Merry Christmas!
Barbara

Ellen Seidman said...

Yes, woman who started Einstein series sold them to Disney, so she is both a very wise and very rich ladies. I have often referred to Baby Einstein videos as Baby Crack, they mesmerize the kids. There was a study that came out how kids who watch these videos have a smaller vocabular, read it on Wikipedia here. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baby_Einstein
I personally think, in moderation, they are fine. Sabrina watched them and is the world's biggest blabbermouth. And Max did, too, but sadly I doubt Baby Einstein has anything to do with his speech issues....