Baby with MP3 player?

[boxtops]

How old would your child have to be before you plugged an MP3 player into its ears? there was a little girl of about 10 months on the bus this morning, mum plugged her earpieces in - I hope it was nursery rhymes! - but surely it can't be good at such a young age to be wearing plug-in earpieces?

[cazzz1975]

I agree box, I think that is quite shocking!

[sara3]

bizarro :o/

[boxtops]

Glad it's not just me....

[JonnyBoy12]

I am with you on this one, boxy. It also annoys me to see kids that young with pierced ears. They are not enough to decide a thing like that for themselves.

[annie0000]

Was it maybe a hearing aid? Can't imagine any reason that a baby should be listening to an MP3 player, surely it should be listening to it's mum and whatever else is going on?

[Postdog]

the wheels on the bus go round and round......

it does sound wrong/lazy for a parent to do this that young

[DaisyNonna]

Agree boxtops.

[boxtops]

Definitely not a hearing aid annie, there were two strings and an MP3 - and mum was saying "can you hear it now?"

[Prudie]

I agree that's awful especially as the jury's still out on whether MP3 players are damaging even adult hearing I believe.

[joko]

perhaps it was soothing music or nursey rhymes to stop the child crying or acting up...you all be complaining if the mother played this stuff out loud...or began singing, or if the child screamed and cried the whole way...

but yes probably not an good idea to do it often and rely on it, but i see no harm with them listening to music, as long as its very low ...presumably they do it at home out loud...

and perhaps earbuds are not the best type to use

[B00]

Whilst i admit i'd have looked twice at the mother, possibly one of those looks being a dirty one too, we really don't know what was on that MP3 player do we?

It could have been, for example, a story by the baby's daddy who wasn't with him/her for whatever reason and mummy is trying to keep daddy 'around' for the baby. Would peoples shock soon change then?

[joko]

sounds like a few knees jerking here

[boxtops]

It wasn't the potential content, B00, it was the concept of earpieces on one so young which surprised me.

[grange]

Are you sure the child wasn,t deaf and having hearing aids put in? I have a profoundly deaf grand-daughter who wore hearing aids from 3months of age. They were no use to her as she is profoundly deaf. She is now 7 and has had a cochlea implant for 5years. She is doing brilliantly and has very good speech but I,m sure lots of people mistake her external processor on her head for some sort of music player!!

[jno]

quite tempting to play soothing music to a baby, but at the same time I wouldn't want to cut her off from the sound of the world too much around by putting things in her ear. On the bus, perhaps no harm, but I wouldn't do it 24/7.