Study: Fussy Kids May Watch More TV

Kids who are “fussy” as babies may end up watching more TV as parents try to soothe them, a new study suggests. The new research looked at data on nearly 7,500 children from a larger study of child development. When the children were 9 months and 2 years old, parents filled out questionnaires. The asked whether children had problems with sleeping, eating, paying attention or controlling mood and behavior. Experts call this “self-regulation.” If these skills are poor, parents may say the baby is fussy. When their children were 2, parents also were asked about TV habits. On average, kids watched 2.3 hours of TV or videos each day. Babies who had problems with self-regulation watched more TV than kids who didn’t have such problems. This was true even after researchers adjusted their numbers to account for factors known to affect children’s TV watching habits.