Baby einstein dvds - good or no?

[Carly b]

At what age should babies start looking at these? As enthralling as they seem to be to babies, the images seem to move pretty fast, so am sure they can easily over-stimulate in a short period of time. No more than 10 mins viewing time I reckon - I dont want to raise a kid with a 3 second attention span.

[Nicki]

I tried my daughter with one about shapes & colours at whatever the recommended age was (around 1?) and she was totally uninterested. She looked really bored!

[Jacquie]

My daughter is now 16 months and had started watching the Baby Einstein Baby DVD box set, since birth. Up to today, she is still fascinated when I put the DVD's on, I think she loves it as she recognises the tunes and pictures and even can sit and watch it while I carry on with my housework. So, I believe these DVDs are great for babies and infants as it help stimulate their sense of sight and perception

[Einstein]

But what about the attention span? There are plenty of reports of kids being put in front of fast moving TV images from very small, having a concentration span of about 3 seconds. As the OP stated.

Why don't you let your kid play by herself, to create some ... creativity, instead of putting her in front of the telly?

If I have a kid I would never put him/her in front of the telly, so that I can do whatever without being bothered by him/her.

[Im guessing]

Well, the Baby Einsteins are supposed to be well researched etc, so they can't be too bad, unless you have your baby in front of them every waking minute.

We have a couple of the DVDs, and they seem quite gentle. If you consider things like cartoons, I think they move faster, because even when a scene is the same, it can be shown from several different angles in a short span of time. As adults, we can follow the story line, so we don't even register that the angle has changed; but for babies with no frame of reference, it must be quite confusing.