Baby Einstein has been a favorite at our house since my son was 6 months old.

We have almost every DVD offered and are always looking for new ones to add to our collection. It was exciting to find out that Baby Einstein was releasing a new edition for 2009 called Baby Einstein World Music.

Thanks to digital technology, we can instantly connect with countries around the world, and our own communities grow more diverse every day. We feel a great importance in teaching our children about different cultures, as we want them to grow up with the understanding, respect, and appreciation of every person and culture they meet.

Designed with a new look, this DVD delivered the same zany puppet antics we have come to love from all of Baby Einstein’s movies.

New for 2009 Disney has added a “grow with me” setting that offers a second viewing mode containing spoken words and additional content that grows with babies, while “select-a-segment” gives parents the choice of viewing shorter segments, such as five or ten minutes, as opposed to longer programming.

Captivating from the beginning, Baby Einstein World Music combines two things that my son loves; animals and music.

He loved dancing along with the music from each country and laughed hysterically every time the monkey in the airplane came on the screen.

Baby Einstein DVD’s are always a favorite to add to a Baby Shower gift or Birthday present.

Their unique mix of music, developmental toys and documentary like videos clips keep little minds occupied long enough for mom to get dinner started or a bit of housework done.

The groundbreaking infant video’s have been made popular by their unusual way of combining real life images with children playing and puppets.

My son, who is three, still loves to watch these videos when he wants a bit of down time after playing. They seem to calm him and make him laugh at the same time.

In celebration of their 10th year, Baby Einstein has released Special Editions of 2 of their popular titles, Baby Mozart and Baby Beethoven.

Also coming in 2009, they will ‘dance to a new beat’ with a while line of World Music products celebrating music and cultures for all 7 continents.

Momcentral recently gave us the opportunity to preview the 10th Anniversary Baby Mozart DVD, Baby Einstein Board Book and the Lullaby Classics CD. All three items are a must, in my opinion, for a successful road trip.

The video to keep your child occupied if the drive is over 45 minutes, the CD to soothe them to sleep on the way home (if it’s a long trip to grandmas) and the book as something bright and exciting to look at when everything else has been played out.

This trio would also make a nice gift pack to give to a mom-to-be or a baby for Christmas.

The Magazine asked parents to name the products that they can’t live without.

I agree with some of these products, but scratch my head about others…

Here are this year’s winners:

1. Boppy
2. Fisher-Price Swings
3. Johnson’s Bedtime Line
4. Desitin Diaper cream
5. Fisher-Price Jumperoo
6. Fisher-Price Bouncer
7. Boudreaux’s Butt Paste
8. Playtex Diaper Genie
9. Dr. Brown’s Bottles
10. Bumbo Seat

Honourable mention

1. Medela Pump in Style
2. Baby Bjorn Baby Carrier
3. A&D Diaper Cream
4. Balmex Diaper Cream
5. Baby Einstein DVDs

Personally, the Medela pump, the Bjorn Carrier and the Baby Einstein DVDs series would be part of my top 10. These three products collectively saved my sanity with Baby #1.

I am completely in LOVE with Fisher-Price’s infant products. The swing and bouncer pictured up top are also two of my favorite baby products. No one makes a swing like Fisher-Price. The Little Lamb Cradle Swing is fit for Royalty.

Kids II has received 23 reports of anchors breaking. No injuries have been reported.

The Baby Einstein Baby Neptune Soothing Seascape crib toy is a plastic molded turtle with a toy aquarium body that has woven fabric straps that attach to the side rails of a crib. The toy turtle has a stuffed fabric head and feet. Model number 30858 is printed on the label on the leg of the turtle. Only crib toys manufactured in October 2007 with date code BJ7 printed on the back of the battery compartment, are included in the recall.

Parents are being asked to stop using the recalled crib toys and contact Kids II at (866) 203-6788 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday to receive a free replacement toy.

The firm’s Web site at www.kidsii.com

The CPSC is asking parents to stop using recalled products immediately.

The recall involves the blue block included with the Baby Einstein Discover & Play Color Blocks, Model 30726 and Model 30881. The blocks are made of soft textures and come in different colors. Only date codes of GE7, GF7, and GG7 are included in this recall. The model number and date code are printed on the labels affixed to the green-colored block.

The products were sold at various retailers and specialty stores nationwide from June 2007 through September 2007 for between $10 and $13.

Consumers should take the recalled blue block away from children immediately and contact Kids II to receive a free replacement of the affected block.

For additional information, contact Kids II toll-free at (866) 203-6788 between 7:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.kidsii.com

Last week every news outlet was reporting that videos, namely the very popular brand Baby Einstein, were bad for infant development. They went on to say that they may actually delay language development in toddlers and could be overstimulating.

The negative press has probably impacted the sales of the videos and related products. The Walt Disney Co., who owns the Baby Einstein brand, called on the University of Washington on Monday to retract a news release of a study on videos for infants, calling it “misleading, irresponsible and derogatory.”

In a letter to UW President Mark Emmert, Disney Chief Executive Robert Iger said the release misrepresented the underlying study, distorted its findings and ignored its shortcomings.

“In short, the university’s press release was grossly unfair, extremely damaging, and, to be blunt, just plain wrong in every conceivable sense,” Iger wrote.

Officials at the University of Washington are reviewing Iger’s letter, which was made public Monday, and planned to talk to the paper’s authors, Frederick Zimmerman, Dimitri Christakis and Andrew Meltzoff, according to a statement released through the UW public affairs office. The Journal of Pediatrics published their research.

On Monday, Iger called Emmert. The university president said the conversation was cordial and amicable. Iger did not threaten legal action, Emmert said.

“First of all, I made clear that we supported and stood behind our faculty’s research. It was research that was well-conducted and published in one of the most important” pediatrics journals, Emmert said.

At issue is the news release, and the UW will review it over the next couple of days to check if it accurately reflects the underlying research, Emmert said. One of the study’s authors worked with a public affairs writer in creating the news release, Emmert said.

Besides Baby Einstein, the release also mentions Brainy Baby. Both companies produce DVDs intended for infants.

In the letter, the Disney CEO offered a detailed critique of the news release. He pointed out that while the study claimed to rely on surveys of 1,008 parents, only 215 of the babies age 8 to 16 months watched TV, and he highlighted that the study was based on telephone surveys, not on observing infants.

“Our assessment, based on what we have been able to learn thus far, is that its methodology is doubtful, its data seem anomalous and the inferences it posits unreliable,” Iger wrote.

Disney believes that the study did not take into consideration the interactive nature of the videos and related products or control for the differing rates of development among infants.

The disputed news release said overuse of baby videos and DVDs may slow the acquisition of vocabulary in babies ages 8 months to 16 months. It also said that parents hoping to help boost the learning of language by their babies may want to limit how much their children are exposed to videos, mentioning Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby.

My son watches all of these videos and LOVES them. He enjoys the puppets and music. He likes the noises the animals make and mimics those noises back to us. He can point out a Panda, Elephant, Koala bear, Kangaroo and Flamingo from sight.

We don’t let him watch them night and day, but just a few periods throughout the day. Everything is moderation…

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I don’t believe that any parent thinks that their child will become a genious from watching Baby Einstein. The videos are good for introducing different types of animals, colours and music to your infant.

Researchers don’t believe that any good comes from putting yor child in front of the television before 2.

The claim always seemed too good to be true: park your infant in front of a video and, in no time, he or she will be talking and getting smarter than the neighbor’s kid. In the latest study on the effects of popular videos such as the “Baby Einstein” and “Brainy Baby” series, researchers find that these products may be doing more harm than good. And they may actually delay language development in toddlers.

Led by Frederick Zimmerman and Dr. Dimitri Christakis, both at the University of Washington, the research team found that with every hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words than babies who never watched the videos. These products had the strongest detrimental effect on babies 8 to 16 months old, the age at which language skills are starting to form. “The more videos they watched, the fewer words they knew,” says Christakis. “These babies scored about 10% lower on language skills than infants who had not watched these videos.”

It’s not the first blow to baby videos, and likely won’t be the last. Mounting evidence suggests that passive screen sucking not only doesn’t help children learn, but could also set back their development. Last spring, Christakis and his colleagues found that by three months, 40% of babies are regular viewers of DVDs, videos or television; by the time they are two years old, almost 90% are spending two to three hours each day in front of a screen. Three studies have shown that watching television, even if it includes educational programming such as Sesame Street, delays language development.

This growing evidence led the Academy to issue its recommendation in 1999 that no child under two years old watch any television. The authors of the new study might suggest reading instead: children who got daily reading or storytelling time with their parents showed a slight increase in language skills.

Though the popular baby videos and DVDs in the Washington study were designed to stimulate infants’ brains, not necessarily to promote language development, parents generally assume that the products’ promises to make their babies smarter include improvement of speaking skills. But, says Christakis, “the majority of the videos don’t try to promote language; they have rapid scene changes and quick edits, and no appearance of the ‘parent-ese’ type of speaking that parents use when talking to their babies.”

As far as Christakis and his colleagues can determine, the only thing that baby videos are doing is producing a generation of overstimulated kids. “There is an assumption that stimulation is good, so more is better,” he says. “But that’s not true; there is such a thing as overstimulation.” His group has found that the more television children watch, the shorter their attention spans later in life. “Their minds come to expect a high level of stimulation, and view that as normal,” says Christakis, “and by comparison, reality is boring.”

I guess the fact that some of these videos are recommended for infants 6 months and up is really not a good thing…

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A couple of weeks ago I posted a warning from a psychologist claiming that the television is “the greatest unacknowledged health threat of our time” with 15 separate risks to couch potato children.

It is a big enough issue because it is back in the news again.

CBC news tells us that:

By the time children are two years old, 90 per cent of them regularly spend time watching TV, DVDs and videos, U.S. researchers have found.

The American Pediatric Society recommends children under two should not watch any TV, and previous studies suggest less viewing time may be important in developing vocabulary. The Canadian Pediatric Society also warns that too much TV is linked to problems with attention, learning and aggressive behaviour.

“For the kids under the age of three, the biggest thing is that they should be interacting verbally,” said Dr. Sarah Shea, head of the child development clinic at the IWK Children’s Health Centre in Halifax, commenting on the study.

“When the TV is on, people don’t talk to each other in a meaningful way. They don’t look at each other when they do talk, except to say things like, ‘Be quiet.’”

At 29 per cent, the top reason parents gave for putting their babies in front of TVs was they believed the programs they chose were good for the child’s brain.

The second most cited reason, at 23 per cent, was that parents believed their baby enjoyed watching or it was relaxing for them. Another 21 per cent of parents said it gave them time to get things done while the child was entertained.

“These results suggest that the widespread notion that parents turn to television only as an electronic babysitter is a misconception,” the researchers concluded. More than half of the time, parents said they watched with their children.

“Parents are clearly hungry for truly educational content for children younger than two years. More research is urgently required to determine whether it is realistic to produce genuinely educational content for children younger than two years, and, if so, what it would be.”

About 40 per cent of infants by the age of three months regularly watched TV, DVDs and videos, according to the study. At the age of two, 90 per cent of children were watching, averaging more than 1.5 hours a day.

Researchers believe that parents think that there is an educational value with some T.V. shows. A recent study revealed that video’s, such as Baby Einstein, will not increase you child’s I.Q. any, despite the title.

For children under three, the best ways to help develop their brain is by talking, reading and playing with them — activities that are less passive than watching TV, she suggested.

SOURCE

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of product: Soft Blocks Tower Toys (on Graco® Baby Einstein® discover and play™ Activity Centers)

Units: About 40,000

Manufacturer: Graco Children’s Products Inc., of Exton, Pa.

Hazard: The plastic covering on the soft block towers can detach, posing a choking hazard to infants.

Incidents/Injuries: Graco has received 137 reports of infants mouthing and chewing pieces of the plastic film covering, some of whom required medical attention. Serious incident reports include 32 infants who gagged and 49 who choked on the plastic covering.

Description: The soft block tower is a stack of three different shaped stuffed fabric blocks in red, yellow and blue. Pictures of apples, fire engines, ducks, bananas, birds and blueberries on the blocks are covered in plastic film. The soft blocks are one of nine toys that snap onto the tray of the activity center. Only model number 4635BEE with serial numbers 012705 through 063005, which indicates the manufacture dates of January 27, 2005 through June 30, 2005, are included in this recall. Model and serial numbers are located underneath the activity center’s tray.

Sold at: Army & Air Force Exchange Service (AAFES), Babies “R” Us, Toys “R” Us, Meijer, Shopko, Target, and various specialty retailers nationwide, and on Wal-Mart.com and Target.com from February 2005 through about December 2005 for $80.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately remove the Soft Blocks toy from the activity center and contact Graco for a free replacement Tower toy without the plastic film. Consumers can continue to use the activity center after the soft block tower has been removed.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Graco at (800) 345-4109 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday, or log on to www.gracobaby.com

Soft Block Tower

A new report released by Education Sector, a centrist Washington think tank, says that many efforts to build “brighter babies” are doomed to failure because they are built on misinterpretations and misapplications of brain research.

“While neural connections in babies’ brains grow rapidly in the early years, adults can’t make newborns smarter or more successful by having them listen to Beethoven or play with Einstein-inspired blocks,” says Sara Mead, a senior policy analyst with Education Sector.

That a baby’s first three years are key for brain development is beyond dispute; scientists know that babies’ brains change rapidly, growing and pruning synapses. But Mead says a few early childhood advocates have misinterpreted or misused research to suggest that if parents don’t sufficiently stimulate children’s brains before age 3, they’ll do irreparable harm. There is no evidence that the first three years “are a singular window for growth that slams shut once children turn 3,” Mead says.

The researchers also say that they don’t know enough about brain growth to say whether educational toys or lessons help: We are “far from knowing how to build a better brain.”

I don’t believe that parents buy these DVDs to make their children geniuses. The images on them are fun and entertaining for babies 6 months and up. Most parents have heard from other parents that the videos keep the child’s attention and that many of them enjoy watching the random images paired with fun upbeat music.

We have the CD for the car because my son likes the music, not because I think it is preparing him to be a concert pianist.

Researchers need to learn not to take these titles so literal. These video’s do a great job of introducing new objects. They are created to stimulate the brain and expand the number of items your child recognizes.

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