The short version
WHO and the Indian Academy of Pediatrics say no screens before two and under an hour a day until five. In a small flat, a cardboard box, masking-tape roads, water play in the bathroom, washable crayons and a folding slide fill a monsoon afternoon.
What happened
The first monsoon with a walking toddler broke me a little. Three weeks of rain, a flat with no balcony to speak of, and a boy who needed to move. I put on a cartoon one afternoon and he watched it with the stillness of someone hypnotised, which was both a relief and the most frightening thing I'd seen him do.
That evening I read the guidelines and felt worse. The WHO and India's own paediatric academy both say no screens at all before two, with a video call to grandparents as the one exception, and at most an hour a day until five. A Bengaluru study had found toddlers averaging two hours a day, and a quarter of them with delayed speech. I turned the TV off and it stayed off, mostly.
What replaced it cost almost nothing. A cardboard box from the fridge delivery became a house, a car and a tunnel for a month. Steel katoris and a wooden spoon became a drum kit. Masking tape on the floor became roads. A tub of water and some cups on a towel in the bathroom bought me forty minutes most days. Washable crayons and the back of old calendars. A ball.
The one real purchase was a small indoor slide that folded, which I resisted for a year as too big and bought in a weak moment. It became the thing he ran to every morning. We have 900 square feet; the slide takes up six of them and is worth every inch.
He still gets a video call with nani. He still asks for the cartoon. Now he gets twenty minutes, after lunch, sitting with one of us. It's not perfect. It's a lot better than that first afternoon.
WHO (2019): no screen time at all under one year; sedentary screen time not recommended at one; no more than one hour a day at two to four, less being better. The Indian Academy of Pediatrics (2022): children under two should not be exposed to any type of screen, except minimal, occasional video calls with family; two to five years, maximum one hour a day in sessions of 20 to 30 minutes.
WHO, To grow up healthy, children need to sit less and play more (2019). Source · Gupta P et al., IAP Guidelines on Screen Time and Digital Wellness, Indian Pediatrics 2022;59:235. SourceA 2021 letter in Indian Pediatrics reported Bengaluru toddlers aged 12 to 36 months averaging 120 minutes a day of screen time, with 26% showing speech delay.
Indian Pediatrics, January 2021. SourceThe verdicts
Washable crayons and a roll of plain paper
Washable is the word. Walls, floor, him. All came off.
A folding indoor slide
Six square feet of our flat, used every day for two years. The purchase I resisted longest and regret least.
A cardboard box, masking tape, steel katoris
The real play kit. Free, and he preferred them to everything in the toy basket.
A 'baby' tablet or learning laptop
A screen with a cartoon face on it is still a screen. Under two the guidance says none; over two, the real tablet with you beside him is no worse and far cheaper.
Product details are as we used them; the version on sale now may differ. Check the exact model and the manufacturer's instructions.