Our first instinct, when our babies get their hands on the TV remote, is to grab it away from them. Because it is clearly Not A Toy (the twins have already figured out that it most certainly IS a toy, and the most desirable one in the house).
However, I was wondering - is there really any risk? Other than them ordering up a few Pay-Per-Views & maybe leaving the buttons a little soggy. Is the little beam that it shoots to the television some kind of hazard?
I know that batteries are extremely hazardous if swallowed, and apparently cell phone batteries are sufficiently dangerous that they should be kept away from an adult’d head, never mind baby. But I was thinking an old remote w/no batteries might be OK. Or even the real one, so long as they can’t get the batteries out.
Old remote with no batteries would be OK. You might want to tape the battery compartment shut so they aren’t able to get at the springy (and possibly sharp) contacts inside.
As for using a “real” remote as a toy, the hazard is in changing whatever you’re watching, or worse, finding the volume button and waking up the neighbors. Remotes are generally fairly durable, so a little drool will make them icky, but that’s about it. Under the buttons is a rubber sheet that has the actual contacts in it - this thing is usually pretty much the entire length x width of the remote, so unless it’s submerged in liquid, there’s not likely to be enough getting in to cause trouble. Another hazard would be deciding the remote makes a fine war hammer and going after a sibling, the dog or furniture.
Oh, and as they get older, you’ll want an old computer keyboard for them to bang on.
Missed your concern about what comes out of the remote - the infrared light signal from a remote isn’t going to hurt anything, even if they stare into the end of the remote and press buttons.
Thanks! I appreciate your taking the time to answer!
That keyboard thing is spot-on, my son’s already fixated with the mouse. I have let each of them type their first documents - pearls of wisdom, I tell ya! jk;lk;l …mnl and a lot of page breaks. Tiny bards they are!
It isn’t just babies who should be prevented from handling the remote…If you want to watch TV yourself.
I spent half an hour, last nite trying to find the damn thing,(and missed part of the football game)
Finally found it----underneath the sleeping cat.
Just to add a smidge to gotpasswords’ reply – the infrared on the remote doesn’t “shoot out” anything. It’s a light, fundamentally identical to the blinking red light on Buzz Lightyear’s arm. The only difference is that (a) you can’t see it, and (b) your TV/cable box/VCR/whatever can.
Actually, it seems to me that the remote control to the TV is probably one of the filthiest objects in the house.
The hands are among the dirtiest places on the body, because they’re your physical interface with the world and pick up all sorts of contaminants, so the remote will naturally share this contamination. It gets handled by everybody, including sick people stuck on the couch unable to do anything else. And it never, ever gets washed. So combine that with the predilection of small children to stick everything they grab straight into their mouths, and… ew.
If you’re looking for a rationale, that would be a pretty good one, I think.
We lost a remote control when our first (as a toddler) went through a stage when everything went into the garbage can. We still have the TV, but the remote is loooong gone.
Zev Steinhardt
Replacement remotes at cheap at $10.
Buy one, remove batteries, epoxy the compartment door shut, and give it to the little darlings.
Clean up the real one and keep it on a high shelf or in your pocket.
babies don’t just dribble on objects and look at them, they bash them too, a bit later, they also chew - the batteries and any sharp broken edges are probably the most significant hazard to the child, but the bigger (although less serious) risk is that the child will render the thing inoperable (this actually happened with our kids - one was bashed a couple of times against a chair leg and it never worked again, the other was sucked and saliva must have worked its way inside - first the little LCD screen failed(wetly), then the whole thing stopped working forever.
You guys are killing me with the “remove batteries” bit.
I say this from experience. Part of the appeal of a remote is that a)it lights up (ours has a tiny red light) and more importantly, b) it does something that gets your attention.
My child LOVES the remote. We tried giving her an older one (minus the batteries) and she wasn’t interested at all in it.
Our remote (the one from dish network) has made it into the was 3 times and still works like a champ. I don’t think a bit of drool will ruin ours.
The same with the keyboard. She likes that when she hits mine, a bonking sound comes from the speakers.
I run the satellite & TV off the same remote and have the manual dog-eared at the page where the codes are for other devices because within 10 seconds of getting their hands on the remote my girls unprogram it.
I don’t know if it’s just because I usually put the remote on the couch next to me, and the cat likes to sleep next to me, or if she just actually likes lying on top of the remote.
Up until the last few months or so, my son wasn’t allowed to play with remotes, even old ones without batteries. He would chew the buttons off. Some I found laying around on the floor, while others I found in the next day’s poop. That was just one day of playing with a remote. Several buttons were missing in a matter of minutes. He’s finally out of that phase, but I would definitely qualify remotes as a choking hazard until your child is past the point of wanting to chew on everything.
We tried letting DangerGirl have an old remote with no batteries. She only wanted the ‘real’ remotes that were clearly superior, since a) we used them and b) sometimes they lit up and did stuff. So far all the real remotes are holding up to the slight abuse they get from the kids, though.
So, good luck with convincing the kids that their battery-less remote is any good!
Spongemom that’s a good point. The buttons on our remote are really flat, so I don’t think they’re as tantalizing as some models.
Actually the dumb thing has so many functions, hardly anyone can manage to make our TV do what they want anyway.
You know, I tried buying them a toy “Kiddie Remote” from the Sassy company - it makes funny sounds when you push the buttons and there’s a simulated light. And they like it. Only problem is, the colored buttons aren’t actually solid colors, they’re clear buttons covered by a thin, flexible sheath of colored plastic. Like a balloon. I know this because my twins managed to chew a bit of it away, leaving a latex flap hanging. Nothing like picking up your baby’s toy only to find it’s become an obvious choking hazard. I contacted the Consumer Products Safety Commission on that one.
Cervaise just wondering if you have kids. I’ve sort of given up most of my germ phobia of late - otherwise I’d spend every waking moment washing something.
You realize you’re talking about the same kids who approach most objects with mouth wide open in order to do a taste test… pets, arms of chairs, carpets, anything not bolted down to the coffee table… scratch that, if you bolted the remote or any object to the middle of a coffee table, that’s when the toddler develops the power of climbing just so they can lick said item.
And of course, they’ll lick every hand in the house that filthifies all the other items in the house.
A toddler’s every other thought is, “Hey, that’s neat. Wonder what it tastes like?” <gaping approach>
Where else are they gonna exercise their immune system and pick up all the bacterial fauna their intestines need to solidify their stool?
So, I’d be more worried about them taste testing the clean but perilous inside of a remote rather than the its dirty outside.
