Disney Offers Refunds for Failed Baby Einsteins

Videos may mesmerize kids, but they don't prompt development
By Caroline Miller,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 24, 2009 6:28 AM CDT
Disney Offers Refunds for Failed Baby Einsteins
Actress Melissa Joan Hart, left, holds up her son Braydon Wilkerson at the "Baby Einstein 10th Anniversary Celebration" at the Walt Disney Concert Call in Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 20, 2008.    (AP Photo/Dan Steinberg)

Parents disappointed that junior isn't a prodigy can get now get a refund from Disney. Threatened with a class-action lawsuit, the makers of Baby Einstein products have withdrawn claims that the ubiquitous videos are beneficial to childhood development, and offered to refund the $15.99 parents shelled out if they return DVDs bought between June, 2004, and September, 2009.


Language suggesting educational benefits was stripped from the line of DVDs, books, cards and flashcards in 2006, the New York Times notes. A 2003 study showed that a third of all American babies from 6 months to 2 years had been exposed to Baby Einstein, despite the fact that pediatricians recommend no TV viewing for children under 2.
(More Baby Einstein stories.)

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