LOS ANGELES -- Parents are bombarded with a dizzying list of orders when it comes to screen time and young children: No screens for babies under 18 months. Limit screens to one hour for children under 5. Only "high-quality" programming. No fast-paced apps. Don't use screens to calm a fussy child. "Co-view" with your kid to interact while watching.

The stakes are high. Every few months it seems, a distressing study comes out linking screen time with a growing list of concerns for young children: Obesity. Behavioral problems. Sleep issues. Speech and developmental delays.

Maya Valree, the mother of a 3-year-old girl in Los Angeles, understands the risks and constantly worries about them. But limiting her daughter's screen time to one hour feels impossible as she juggles life as a working parent, she said.

Over the past few years, her child's screen time has ranged up to 2-3 hours a day, more than double the limit recommended by pediatricians. Valree puts on educational programming whenever possible, but it doesn't capture her child's attention as well as her favorites, Meekah and "The Powerpuff Girls."

"Screen time is in the top three or five things to feel guilty about as a mom," she said. "I've used it to pacify my daughter while cooking or working or catching up on anything personal or professional."

Valree is among the legions of parents who by choice or necessity allow their babies and preschoolers to watch several times more than the limit recommended by experts, creating a vast disconnect between the troubling predictions of harm and the reality of digital life for American families.

But her feelings of guilt may put Valree in the minority. Directives to limit the time young children spend on digital devices may not be taking root because many parents simply don't believe their child's screen time is a problem in the first place.

Parents need to have some type of distraction for their kids, and "screens tend to be the easiest option, the lowest hanging fruit," said Dr. Whitney Casares, a Portland pediatrician and author of the book "Doing It All." "I hear more people saying, 'I know screen time is bad, I wish we had less of it in our family, but I feel helpless to change it.'"

Screen time use among older children made news in June, when the Los Angeles school board approved a cellphone ban all day on campus, and the U.S. surgeon general called for a warning on social media platforms advising parents that they can damage teenagers' mental health.

Many families, however, support their children's phone use for safety and education. For a generation of parents of who grew up with cellphones and computers, such sentiments appear to start with much younger children. A national survey of families with children 8 and younger found that the majority of parents believe screen time is a net positive — helping their children learn to read, boosting creativity and even improving their social skills.

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