Gifts to get your toddler into tech

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If you’re the parent or relative of young children, you probably already know that they’ll be glued to their iPods, cellphones or computers by the time they’re 13, condemning you to years of asking them questions and wondering if they’re listening because their earphones are in. (A clue: They’re probably not.)

To get acclimated to this strange behavior of gadget-addicted teens, you could introduce your kids at a very young age to the world of video players, iPods, laptops and all things digital. That way, you’ll be used to Junior texting by the time he’s, say, 4, and he’ll love you even more for giving him the gift of technology. Here’s a handful of gadgets for kiddies aimed at the toddler crowd.

For starters, there’s iTeddy, which sounds slightly smutty but is in fact a teddy bear with a built-in video player. With iTeddy, Junior can watch videos, look at pictures and then hug his teddy bear’s very expensive chest. Creepily, you have to pull up iTeddy’s shirt to see the video screen, which will teach kids that taking off their friends’ shirts can only result in fun times. It’s marketed to kids ...

... 3 and older and is only at Target ($79.99), said Scott Goldberg, a spokesman for Zizzle, which is selling the toy in the U.S. (About 35,000 bears were sold in the UK last year.)

Not too keen on combining tech with cuddly fun? Maybe you should give Disney’s Pix Jr. digital camera, which is plastered with images of Disney characters. It takes 1.3 megapixel pictures and holds up to 150 photos, which means you can save all those precious images of Junior’s feet and your knees for eternity. Disney supposedly tested this gadget by throwing it down some concrete stairs, and apparently it survived, which will teach Junior that electronics are hardy and should be dropped whenever possible.

But maybe you don’t want your kid to spend all his time watching videos in the tummy of a teddy bear or taking pictures of his shoes. College arrives sooner than you think, after all. If that’s the case, VTech’s Tote & Go Laptop might be right for your family. It has a detachable mouse pad (for your toddler’s convenience on business trips) and teaches language, math, games and music so you won’t have to. It weighs a little bit more than 2 pounds and comes in all sorts of colors so it will match Junior’s outfit, even if he’s wearing something ugly that someone gave you at his baby shower.

You might worry that Junior is going to be too antisocial with these tech gadgets. Tech is supposed to be about communicating with his peers so he can have more friends on MySpace, right? Maybe you should check out Totspot.com, which is a social networking site for babies. It’s free, so it’s not necessarily a gift, but Junior can post holiday photos of himself drinking too much eggnog and running around the house naked. The site actually is designed for parents, but Michael Broukhim, one of Irvine-based TotSpot’s founders, said parents and their kids often go on the site together. So go ahead, post embarrassing pictures of Junior drooling on his iTeddy or typing away on his laptop on TotSpot. It’s never too early for him to learn that things posted on the Interweb will haunt him for the rest of his life.

-- Alana Semuels