COLUMBUS, Ohio — When Annamarie Saarinen needed to soothe her ailing daughter, she used a rattle — downloaded to her iPhone.
Jeff Hilimire uses a white-noise application on his phone to make shushing noises for his infant daughter. And Tracie Stier-Johnson lets her young daughters answer trivia questions on her phone while waiting in the doctor’s office or at parent-teacher conferences.
“You can only play ‘I Spy’ so many times,” said Stier-Johnson, 40, of Racine, Wis.
A mushrooming number of applications on smart phones have parents using them more than ever as modern baby rattles. These wired-up phones allow parents to play number and letter games with their preschoolers or to get a few minutes of quiet when children watch movie clips on a plane or while waiting for a restaurant table.
Jenny Reeves, 34, of San Antonio lets her boys — ages 3 1/2 and 2 — type words or flip through pictures of themselves and their dog on her BlackBerry when they have to pass time without books. Her older son is learning to send e-mails to his grandparents and dad that say, “I love you.”
People also are downloading applications to turn phones into impromptu baby monitors and to research nutrition information.
