{"id":88909,"date":"2009-12-18T15:24:07","date_gmt":"2009-12-18T20:24:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/childrenshospitalblog.org\/?p=3736"},"modified":"2009-12-18T15:24:07","modified_gmt":"2009-12-18T20:24:07","slug":"my-local-movie-theatre-offers-%e2%80%9cmom-baby%e2%80%9d-showtimes-should-i-go","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/88909","title":{"rendered":"My local movie theatre offers \u201cmom & baby\u201d showtimes, should I go?"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n

\"michaelrich_small\"Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health<\/a> at Children\u2019s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed negative portrayals of black women in the movies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s this week\u2019s question:<\/p>\n

Q: There is a movie theatre near my home that has afternoon shows for moms, where they put out a changing table in the theater and don\u2019t lower the lights all the way\u2014but then they show very adult movies. What effect does being exposed to these movies have on infants and toddlers, most of whom are not talking yet?<\/strong>
\n–Skeptical about Screenings<\/em>, Pacific Palisades, CA<\/span><\/p>\n

A:<\/strong> Dear Skeptical,<\/p>\n

This accommodation for moms certainly seems like a great convenience, but you are right to question its effects on the babies. Because the babies are not yet ready to talk — a stage called “pre-verbal” — it\u2019s tempting to believe that they are not affected by what\u2019s on screen. And it\u2019s true that they probably can\u2019t figure out the images in any meaningful way. So what\u2019s the problem?<\/p>\n

The main problem with this kind of arrangement is that babies are exquisitely attuned to their mothers\u2019 feelings. Films geared toward adults often involve fear, violence, and\/or sexuality, and if the films are any good, they are probably affecting the moms’ emotions.\u00a0 Babies will feel those changes in emotions, and they can form associations between mom\u2019s emotional response and whatever is in the environment at that moment. For example, if a dog barks during a scary scene and mom\u2019s adrenalin increases, the child may end up with an almost intangible fear of dogs.<\/p>\n

Research shows that anxiety and fear responses tend to be tied to single exposures; in other words, becoming scared of something can happen even if someone’s only seen it once. One study<\/a> showed that some young adults who saw Jaws<\/em> as children would not go into the water–not even swimming pools–even years later because they had such a deep fear of sharks.<\/p>\n

These sorts of fears are easily formed in a baby\u2019s brain, which creates 700 new synapses, or connections, per second<\/em>. These synapses are created in response to whatever is going on around the baby. For that reason, parents should put their infants in environments that will build their brains the way they want them to be built. Movies made for adults are likely to have the opposite effect. When moms want to go to the movie theater, their best bet for helping to build their baby’s brain to be strong and healthy is to hire a sitter and head out for some well-deserved fun without their little one.<\/p>\n

Enjoy your media and use them wisely,
\n<\/em> The Mediatrician<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Do you have a question about your child\u2019s media use? Ask it today!<\/a><\/p>\n

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<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Media expert Michael Rich, MD, MPH, director of the Center on Media and Child Health at Children\u2019s Hospital Boston, answers your questions about media use. Last week, he discussed negative portrayals of black women in the movies. Here\u2019s this week\u2019s question: Q: There is a movie theatre near my home that has afternoon shows for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":481,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-88909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/481"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=88909"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/88909\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=88909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=88909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=88909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}