Now here's a study that just makes my day: children who watch at least four hours of television a day see at least a 10-point jump in IQ, and later, in SAT scores.

It doesn’t matter whether the TV is educational or not, either – researchers from the Society for Lenient Childrearing found that it was time in front of the screen, not the content of the programming, that made the difference.

"To our surprise, we found that exposure to everything from Little Einsteins to mommy's stories had a salutary effect," said lead researcher Dora Marquez. "The take-home message from this is that parents should watch whatever TV they wish, for as long as they wish, and not worry about what their children are doing."

Watching TV with the children and discussing it actually lessened the positive effect.

Researchers did express concern that many of the children who watched the most TV showed lower weights than those who watched little to none. High-calorie snacks, especially those with large amounts of high fructose corn syrup, reversed this effect.

As with much about parenting, the earlier the TV-watching commenced, the better. Marquez suggested beginning in the hospital, if at all possible, and certainly immediately on arriving home. "It's a good use for those two a.m. feedings," Marquez said.

An American Academy of Pediatrics spokesperson said the group is scrambling to revise its recommendations posthaste. "Wow, we called that one wrong," she said.