Stroller Babies Should Face Parents

by Sandy Maple (Subscribe to Sandy Maple's posts) Nov 21st 2008 1:00PM

Categories: Newborns, Babies, Development, In The News

Which way does your child sit in her stroller - facing you or facing away from you? According to a new study out of Dundee University's School of Psychology, your child's view while riding in a stroller matters.

The study makes a connection between babies who sit facing away from their parents and long-term developmental problems. The study of 2,722 parents and children found that the babies who sit facing out were less likely to talk, laugh and interact with their parents. You know, because they can't see their parents.

"Our experimental study showed that, simply by turning the buggy around, parents' rate of talking to their baby doubled," said developmental psychologist Suzanne Zeedyk, who led the research.

Zeedyk goes on to lay a big guilt trip on the 62% of parents who stroll their children in forward-facing prams. "Our data suggests that for many babies today, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful," she said.

Reinforcing Baby/Parent Attachment(click thumbnails to view gallery)

Source

Comments (41)

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)

JO 11-21-2008 @ 2:16PM

Are they Joking?? Obviously they do not have children. Everyone of my kids have had a forward facing stroller and they are just fine.
They loved being able to see where they are going, and for me to point to new things for them to look at.
AOL really needs to take a look at some of their articles and who is writing them.

CLM 11-21-2008 @ 2:23PM

Riiiiiiiiiiight. I seriously doubt that 1/2 hour in a stroller is going to cause permanent harm. I mean really, WTF? That's like calling a nursery emotionally impoverishing because a kid sleeps in his crib alone at night. Where do these people get the money for these studies? I could come up with crap like this if someone handed me beaucoup bucks. When my boys were BABIES they were in a snap n' go and faced me, which made sense because they couldn't really see very far. By the time they were old enough to be in a regular stroller, they were more interested in looking around than staring at me. If they wanted to see me, all they had to do was peek up and there I was!

Jenn 11-21-2008 @ 2:23PM

Not "alarming" and probably not true, either! Geez, can we quit with all these "scientific studies" already? We've been birthin' babies for thousands of years and most of us turned out just fine without the benefit of studies, technologies, etc.!

Kat 11-21-2008 @ 2:27PM

They are absolutely full of it! My daughter is perfectly well-adjusted. I imagine if the child sat in the stroller for their entire existence and the parent NEVER interacted with them, there would be an issue... but come on! My daughter loves seeing what is going on and would yell at me if I were to turn her around to face me... she sees me all the time!

Angie 11-21-2008 @ 2:31PM

This is crape. My son is 2 1/2 he rides in a forward facing stroller and loves it. He can count to 10 and has a high vocab. People mistake him for 4 because of his communication skills all the time. So this type of stroller has had no effect on him at all and trust me he has spent alot of time it his stroller. I have back problems and can not always lift him.

rebecca Biernesser 11-21-2008 @ 2:53PM

ohhhh I bet companies start changing the way strollers are made...

Roxanne 11-21-2008 @ 3:02PM

This information is no shock to Attachment Parenting families. Human newborns need to be carried against an adult body for proper psychological and emotional development to occur. Cultures that forsake babywearing for the "convenience" of stroller usage are jeopardizing their long-term future.

PS: I absolutely LOVE the AP gallery underneath the article!!!

CLM 11-21-2008 @ 4:58PM

Don't a lot of baby wearing cultures have the kid strapped to their back? So are all of those kids emotionally impoverished?

Kathie 11-21-2008 @ 8:29PM

And did you happen to notice that in that gallery, there is a Mom holding her baby in a sling and the baby is facing AWAY from her. That poor child. She's smiling now, but very soon, she'll start having anxiety attacks because she's in a sling not facing her mother. Poor baby.

Roxanne 11-22-2008 @ 2:14PM

In traditional cultures, the newborn baby is worn on the front to facilitate almost continous attachment to the mother's nipple. Only occasionally is a very young infant worn on the back; for example, when the mother is cooking or washing or doing something else where she needs freedom of movement. As the baby gets older and begins to hold its head up with more control, it is more often worn on the back. Regardless, the infant is in constant contact with the mother's body. It feels the heartbeat and body warmth, and learns to adapt the rhythmic movements as its mother walks and works about the house. This allows for proper development of the central nervous system (sensory integration/processing). Natural stimulation of the vestibular system is vital for proper gross motor development later in life. Even strollers that face the mother can be detrimental if they have shock absorbers that keep the baby too still too frequently.

Wearing a baby in a sling facing outward from the mother can in NO way be compared to any type of stroller. The infant is still connected to the mother. Her baby is right there in front of her, and she will touch it and talk to it. How often have you seen a mother pushing a stroller, all the while leaning down to maintain physical contact with her child? And the slinging mother can easily turn her baby about in a second if the baby indicates that is what it needs.

isisaquaria 11-21-2008 @ 3:02PM

IDK My kids rarely, if ever, rode or ride in strollers--but many I know had done one or the other or both and the kids are fine.

I personally agree--studies are getting out of hand, and there are studies for both sides of everything-which are you supposed to believe.

cassie k 11-21-2008 @ 3:12PM

YEAH OK.... I am a 23 year old mother of one... Evander is 3 and has been talking since he was 6 months old.. i can carry on conversations, i mean typical baby convos, but convos none the less, with him, his first word was mom at 4 months old, i SERIOUSLY doubt that this is a legitimate study!!!!

sandy 11-21-2008 @ 3:20PM

I've never even seen a rear facing stroller meant for anything other than snapping an infant seat in to. Never seen one for kids old enough to sit up on their own. Was this "study" funded by some Swedish company that sells $2000 rear-facing strollers?

Sara 11-21-2008 @ 7:12PM

I have a stroller/travel system from about 7 1/2 years ago made by Graco where the seat went down completely flat which was great for diaper changes if you weren't near a bathroom or even for nap time. The seat could also snap out and be turned around completely to face me. Even then I only used it until I felt safe having my daughter face outward and see what was around. It certainly didn't hurt her since she's always been very interactive and began reading before she was three years old.

I'm so glad I saved that because you can't get them anymore and we still use it for my son who is now 2 1/2. The only other brand I even know of that had this was Peg-Perego where the handle could change sides, but that is an expensive brand to just have the handle change position.

ann 11-21-2008 @ 3:25PM

AOL is soooo full of crap lately, and they ARE like the Nat'l Enquirer- they publish b.s. stories, or- just as bad- normal stories that they attach a misleading headline to, to get you to click on them. And you don't get these stories ONCE- each one gets republished several times, with a different headline. Their lazy way of recycling news to make you think you will be reading something new.

Regarding forward facing strollers- newborns today tend to be in rear facing carseat/stroller combos, from what I see everywhere I go. I have an 8 month old daughter, and all the strollers I looked at were like this. When they get old enough to support themselves, you take off the car seat part and they sit in the front facing stroller. This is the time when they WANT to see what is going on, and enjoy going to stores, etc., and seeing people and things. They can look at Mom/Dad at home!

Angelina 11-21-2008 @ 3:42PM

Ha! I'm 16 and I think that is complete garbage. My parents had me in the stroller facing them and I still can't stand talking to them, but my cousin who was faced away from her parents can't wait to go home and talk about her day with her "mommy". The only reason I would put my baby in a stroller facing me, would be for safety precautions when they are still very small, as they get older I'm sure they would rather see what was going on around them. I mean come on, I feel out of that damn thing a few times cause i was trying to see what was going on.

Joe Martin 11-21-2008 @ 3:53PM

Horse Feathers! If a child is has long-term developmental problems from lack of parental interaction, it's not the stroller, it's the parent! And the lack of parental interaction didn't just happen with the stroller. With tiny infants facing the parent is a safety precaution, but once a baby can sit unassisted, the baby will prefer to see where he or she is going. More Tabloid Science from our Liberal Media. Does AOL even have an editor to screen this schlock out?

drocelot 11-21-2008 @ 4:00PM

I think it seems pretty obvious that a rear facing stroller would help parent-baby bonding. Does that mean a forward-facing stroller is stress inducing? Probably not. I, for one, think that anything beneficial is worth trying though. Throw out your Baby Einstein videos (proven to be detrimental unless viewed with parent) and spend time with your children. I guarantee they'll be smarter from extra human interaction.

bob 11-21-2008 @ 4:04PM

Most parents who take their children for a walk in the stroller probably care about that child and interact with them not only on thre trip but before and afterwards. I'd be worred about the child sitting in his playpen at home unattended for hours.
Side note: Does AOL have a financial interest in "The View." I never saw so many repeated articles about that show. At least 2-3 a week.

N 11-21-2008 @ 4:11PM

It's not being alarmist when intellectuals want to study why more and more children are growing up with mental, social and behavioral issues. Even taking into account advances in medical diagnosis, more awareness of certain types of disorders and even a society bent on finding a medical reason for every tick or odd behavior we should be willing to recognize a disturbing trend in parenting--disassociation.

I say parenting, not nurturing, since we have a market geared toward making gadgets that rock, soothe, walk, talk to, sing to, read to, and warm butt wipes for.

I mean, what on earth folks--this study probably applied to infants and the loss of face-to-face contact more and more babies are having with mothers who choose not to nurse, keep babies in strollers/swings/playpens/car seats indoors as a sort of baby soother (I kid you not, I've watched a Mom rock a car seat with her foot as she was on the computer), and choose to let other gadgets nurture their child let alone someone else's mother as a nanny/day care worker. (Okay, we don't all have choice to stay home, but let's let that stand for the sake of the point of the study.)

\No scientist needs to tell me that it is most important to breastfeed (newborns can see exactly the distance from Mom's breast to her face--seems an obvious connection there), to hold, rock, sing and talk to baby close to the body and face of a parent or caregiver to help develop a "normal" child. Kickin' it old school style mothering...you can keep the fancy $300 jogging strollers wizards-o-marketing, I'll hold my baby in a sling for those precious first few months thank you very much.

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