Dr. Randy Cale’s Terrific Parenting: Have we all gone mad? Raising infants and toddlers on Ms. Rachel

June 14, 2026 - 18:47

Despite decades of solid research on early childhood development, let me risk sounding like a relic for a moment: have we all gone completely mad?

We now see infants and toddlers, barely steady on their feet, glued to hours of hyper-stimulating screen content. The star of this show is often Ms. Rachel, a well-meaning YouTube personality who sings, gestures, and speaks directly to the camera. Parents hand over the phone or tablet, convinced this is educational. But is it?

The problem is not Ms. Rachel herself. The problem is the substitution. A real human face, with real eye contact, real touch, and real, unscripted interaction, is what a developing brain craves. A screen, no matter how cheerful, cannot read a baby's cues. It cannot pause to mirror a coo or respond to a sudden frown. The infant learns that the world responds on a timer, not through relationship.

We are raising a generation of children who expect constant, high-intensity entertainment. When the real world feels slow and quiet, they become bored, fussy, or demanding. The irony is painful. We hand them a device to calm them down, but we are wiring them for restlessness. The cure for a fussy baby was never a video. It was a lap, a voice, a song sung without a screen in between.