Toddler Watching Movies to Fall Asleep at Night

I think you should leave things like they are. As long as he gets proper exercise the movie watching for naps and bedtime shouldn't be a problem.

Please do not allow your child to get into such a habit.
I am a retired teacher and know that children need their sleep above all.
If he progresses to having a TV in his room it is just a matter of time until he might be watching it in the middle of the night while you are asleep.
It is better to put a stop to it now than to wait.

I think whatever works, do it, especially when it comes to them getting sleep. My daughter as a toddler had a tv in her room until kindergarten, and old enough to understand that school nights meant not staying up and watching tv. She put up a fight in the beginning, but starting school was a good way to deflect from the movies at night. She was so into starting school, she didn't care about losing the tv when we explained a good night's sleep meant lights out at 8 pm. She's now in 2nd grade and has no sleep issues. Now my son is 2, and we are trying to get him out of our bed, so we plan on putting a tv/dvd in his room to keep him in there.

My 7 year old does this still. He has no problems. He just like the noise. Half of the time he rolls over the other way to he can not see the screen. I think it is fine but I am curious as to what the other Moms say.

I dont think it is a problem either. Especially since it doesnt seem to be having effect on his sleeping. Some kids/people need that in order to help them fall asleep. Also, kids go through so many phases, this may be one of those and it will soon pass. My son seems to need a different method of falling asleep every six months :)!

I don't see a problem with it and if you think he is staying up too late, I would just start the movie earlier. I would make it into a routine, like eat dinner, take a bath, pray, then say okay it is time to go to bed and put the movie in.

I think you may be setting him up for problems in his adult years by doing this and it may be better to nip it in the bud now while he is still young. Reading books is always a great way for my kids to wind down especially if there are very few pictures. Since he gets upset if the TV's not on when he wakes up that seems like a red flag. I don't think TV should be a part of a young child's daily routine becaue when you think about what else they would be doing instead of zoning out in front of the TV the answer is usually "playing" or "reading books" and why in the world would we want to limit those activities in favor of mindless TV viewing?

Do you think he is actually paying attention to the movie, or could it be he just can't fall asleep without background noise? We are totally against putting a tv in our childrens' rooms. My brother is 21 and cannot fall asleep without the tv on and now has horrible sleeping patterns. What we have done instead is after we do our usual night-time routine we put on a cd of their favorite (not to energetic) songs. It seems to help them fall asleep. We don't leave it on all night, but if they happen to wake up during the night we will start it again for them.

T.,

It's probably a matter of opinion and what you are comfortable with in your house. Let me say that I absolutely LOVE TV. I don't get the time to watch it like I used to, but I have a TV in my room and I can't fall asleep without it on. If I wake up in the middle of the night to pump (nursing) or let the dogs out or whatever, I actually put the TV back on.

We have a large flat screen in our living room, a huge widescreen in the basement, a TV in our bedroom, one in the office and one in the spare room. So, it's not like I'm anti-TV or anything.

That being said, we will not allow TV in our kids rooms...for a long long time. I semi-limit the amount of TV that our 2.5 y/o watches as I just think there are better ways to chill out. We play a instrumental CD in his room to help him relax and fall asleep. We also let him "read" books in bed as he enjoys that.

The TV is off in our house from about 7:30 (bath time) until both boys are in bed. Then it's time for the DVR for me!

If I were you, I would probably slowly try to encourage some other ways to fall asleep.

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T.

Does he actually watch the movie? I know lots of people that sleep with a tv on. They like the noise and the light. I can't sleep without a fan on. I don't know that any of us have ever suffered any problems. It's not like he's zoned out in front of the tv all day long or anything. If you're concerned and he's really not watching the movie, just likes the sound or lights, you could replace the movie with white noise and a night light. Not much you can really do about him watching cartoons at the sitters though. I say, if it's not broke, don't fix it :)

For a long time I refused to let my son have a TV in his room. He is almost 6 and I did, for Christmas this year, get him a TV and a DVD player for his room, but his TV is not hooked up to cable and has lousy reception so he can't just turn it on and sit in front of it at night. He also does not know how to operate the DVD player and aside from that I've been surprised at how disinterested he is in having it.

Every kid is different, and its really up to you as to what you ultimately do, but my whole thing is this; TV stimulates brain activity and as a result its much harder for kids to "wind down" and get sleepy, and get good rest when they do fall asleep. It makes them more prone to bad dreams. As one of the other moms said, I cut my son off after just a couple hours at night, he is done by 8pm, and I'm beginning to think thats too late.

For me, my little one is hyper enough on his own and if he stays up watching TV it makes it worse. If I were you and wanted to break the habit, I would start by doing his bedtime routine and letting him watch his movie for 15-20 minutes (whatever length of time less than 30 minutes or less than the length of time it normally takes for him to fall asleep). And then I would go in his room, while he is still awake, and tell him TV time is over and its time to go to sleep. If he needs background noise, maybe put on a cd at low volume with nursery songs on it.

I also bought my son a globe, one that lights up, and he doesn't mess with it but he likes having it on so he can see it at night. Maybe that with some music will help settle him instead of tv. Good luck!