Screens for Babies and Toddlers: What Muslim Parents Should Know

It’s 5pm. You haven’t sat down since Fajr, dinner isn’t made, the baby is grizzling and the toddler is pulling at your leg. The tablet is right there. Five minutes of a nasheed video would buy you enough peace to chop an onion.

If you’ve been there, you’re not a bad parent. You’re a tired one. This guide sets out what health bodies actually advise for under-twos, why “Islamic” content is still a screen, and what you can reach for instead, without guilt and without pretending the 5pm crunch doesn’t exist.

What the guidance says

The two most widely used sets of guidance are close to each other:

The AAP also recommends screen-free mealtimes for all ages, and switching screens off an hour before bed.

Video calls are different

Both sets of advice are about watching screens. A video call with Nani in Lahore, Teta in Amman or Granny in Leeds is different: a real person on the other end is looking at your baby, answering their babbles and saying their name. The AAP makes a specific exception for video-chatting. For many Muslim families spread across countries, these calls are part of keeping the ties of kinship (silat ar-rahim) alive.

Islamic videos are still screens

This is the part that surprises many parents. A video of a nasheed, a Qur’an recitation with animations, or a cartoon about the five pillars feels different from a random cartoon. And content does matter. But for babies and young toddlers, the age guidance isn’t really about content. It’s about what the screen replaces and how a young brain learns.

• A screen can’t take turns. Babies learn language through “serve and return”: they babble, an adult responds, back and forth. The Harvard Center on the Developing Child describes how these exchanges help build the developing brain. A video doesn’t wait for your toddler’s reply.
• Screens crowd out play and talk. Every half hour on a tablet is half an hour not spent chatting, crawling, stacking cups or being read to.
• Screens can affect sleep. Which is why the AAP advises turning them off an hour before bed.

So “it’s Islamic” doesn’t change the advice. The good news: everything those videos are trying to teach (Allah’s name, nasheeds, duas, stories), your toddler learns better from you.

Why it’s hard

Let’s be honest about why screens creep in:

• You’re exhausted, or caring for a baby and a toddler at once.
• You’re cooking, praying or working from home.
• You’re a single parent with no one to hand over to.
• Relatives put a phone in front of the baby to stop the crying.
• You’re unwell, pregnant again, or struggling with your mood.

None of these makes you a failure. They make you human. The aim is not a perfect zero but a direction: fewer screens, more of you, and a few good alternatives ready for the hard moments. And if exhaustion or low mood are behind it, please talk to your GP, health visitor or a trusted friend. You deserve support too.

Alternatives

Have a “5pm basket” ready: things that buy you ten minutes without a screen.

• Board books. Sturdy, chewable, and good for pointing and naming. Islamic board books about Allah’s creation, animals or duas are a lovely addition.
• Qur’an or nasheed audio. Sound without a screen. Your toddler can dance, clap or just listen while you cook.
• A play basket. Wooden spoons, a pan lid, plastic cups, a scarf, a small ball. Rotate the items weekly so they feel new.
• Kitchen helper. Strap your baby in a high chair beside you with a bowl and a spoon. Toddlers love “helping” wash vegetables.
• Water play. A washing-up bowl of water and some cups on a towel on the floor, with you right there.
• Narrate while you work. “Now Mama is chopping the onion. Chop, chop. Bismillah, into the pan.” It’s serve and return without stopping what you’re doing.
• Prayer mat time. Let them sit beside you while you pray. A toddler copying your sujood is better than any cartoon about salah.

More play ideas by age are in play is sunnah.

If you use screens

If you do use screens with a toddler around 18 months to two, the guidance suggests:

1. Watch together. Sit with them, point and talk: “Look, a camel! What does the camel say?”
2. Keep it short. One song or one short episode, not an endless autoplay.
3. Choose slow, gentle content. Calm music, real people, no flashing or frantic editing.
4. Turn off autoplay. Decide in advance when it ends.
5. Keep meals and bedtime screen-free. The AAP advises no screens during meals and for an hour before bed.
6. No screens in the cot or bedroom.
7. Watch your own phone use. Toddlers notice when we’re half there. Putting your phone in another room during play is a gift to both of you.

Context notes

• In extended-family homes, a TV may be on all day in the living room. You can’t control everything. Focus on your own time with your child, and gently ask relatives not to put phones in the baby’s hands.
• In a Muslim-minority country, screens can feel like an easy way to give your child Islamic content they won’t get elsewhere. At this age, your voice, your duas and your prayer mat do that job better.
• For families abroad, video calls with grandparents are not “screen time” in the way health bodies mean it. Make them a regular, joyful part of the week.

When your child is older, our screen time plan for Muslim kids and YouTube and tablets for young children pick up from here, and sunnah habits for babies and toddlers shows what a screen-light day can look like.