LOS ANGELES — Before her daughter was born, Marnie Cooper sifted through newspaper and magazine articles, weighing the pros and cons of exposing young children to TV.

"Everything I read said: Beware of the television," remembers Cooper, 41, of Studio City, Calif. In fact, the American Academy of Pediatrics advises against any TV watching by children under 2.

So she relied, instead, on videos that promoted learning skills. But her now precocious 3-year-old is more curious about the TV offerings beyond her DVD library.

"It's a tough call because kids love TV," says Cooper, an acting coach and stay-at-home mom. "She could watch TV all day long."

A proliferation of programming on kiddie cable networks is making that a reality. Besides Nickelodeon and the Disney Channel — the big kids on cable's preschool playground — Discover Kids, TLC, Cartoon Network and PBS Kids Sprout are developing an array of new shows and Web content for the juice-box generation of 2- to 5-year-olds.

"If you look at how much programming there is for adults, kids television is just starting to catch up," says Marjorie Kaplan, general manager of Discovery Kids, which premiered its musical math series, "Hip Hop Harry," yesterday. "The good news in preschool programming is that there is a lot of quality preschool programming," Kaplan says.

"When my son was first born, there wasn't much besides Disney and PBS on my satellite system," says Waldorf, Md., mom Patricia Baylor, 38. "He's 3 now and I have more choices, which is good for me as a parent, and for my child."

Nickelodeon is gearing up to premiere new seasons of its Nick Jr. and Noggin programming blocks in October, as well as debut a slate of new originals for 2007 and roll out multiplatform initiatives, which include launches on iTunes.

Nickelodeon, a Viacom company, remains No. 1 with the wee ones. Nick Jr. alone boasts seven of the top 10 preschool programs on commercial TV, including the top four: "Go, Diego, Go!," "Dora the Explorer," "The Wonder Pets!" and perennial favorite "Blue's Clues," which recently celebrated its 10th anniversary.

Says Brown Johnson, creative director for Nickelodeon Preschool Television: "We can see now how 'Blue's Clues' has changed how kids watch TV. With that very engaging format that 'Blue's Clues' pioneered, you see (it) all over the place now: PBS' 'Elmo's World' is formatted on that, as is Disney's 'Bear in the Big Blue House' and 'JoJo's Circus.' "

Playhouse Disney on the Disney Channel is honing in on helping kids develop social skills and music as tools for learning. The channel recently premiered its first multicultural series, "Handy Manny," and a new five-minute series, "Feeling Good with JoJo," aimed at getting kids to exercise.

In 2007, Disney launches "Johnny & the Sprites," a live-action music series featuring Tony Award nominee John Tartaglia.

For its part, the Cartoon Network will continue gearing its morning shows for preschoolers. Next month it debuts the new animated comedy "Ellen's Acres," and is developing projects with a broader demographic appeal.

Since its launch last September, PBS Kids Sprout — a collaboration of Comcast Corp. and children's program companies PBS, HIT Entertainment and Sesame Workshop — has quickly become a favorite with its 24-hour programming.

The channel offers a series of acquisitions like "Sesame Street" and "Barney & Friends," a new slate of 60-minute original movies, and daily animated shorts such as "Sprout's Diner," designed to promote healthy eating among kids.

"The Kaiser Family Foundation just released a study that 72 percent of kids 2 to 6 are watching TV every day," says Sandy Wax, president of PBS Kids Sprout. "So kids are watching TV. Our goal is to provide programming just for them, that's good for them."

The challenge for many parents such as Houston mother-of-three Wendy Codwell is not whether their children will watch TV, but finding a balance.

With networks these days aiming at kids as young as 3 months, "the true test of how your kids will come out is not quantitative, but qualitative," says Codwell, 40. "That means playing with them, reading to them and, if they're not watching TV, finding ways to interact with them educationally and creatively."