Baby Blockhead?

Over at Mama Never Said, I wrote about my gratefulness and apprehension regarding Baby Einstein DVDs. On the one hand, they calmed him during a teething bout and gave me ample time to shower and dress for the day. Yet the way those simple, spinning toys spellbind babies is downright eerie.

Then I stumbled across this: Last year, researchers at the University of Washington discovered that for every hour per day infants ages 8 to 16 months watched educational TV -- like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby -- they understood six to eight fewer words than infants unexposed to such videos.

According to an interview in TIME magazine, Dr. Dimitri Christakis -- one of the researchers -- said that video-watching babies scored 10 percent lower on language skills than infants who had not watched them.

The magazine sites three studies as finding that all educational television -- including SESAME STREET, people -- delays language development. Looks like the Count's efforts have been in vain.

I'm sure these findings are meant to deter parents from parking their kids in front of the tube and expecting them to emerge cultured and scholarly, rather than scolding those well-intentioned, slightly smelly parents who just need 15 minutes to take a shower and get dressed. But still, the statistics are rather shocking.

What do you think? Do you have TV rules in your house?