A crazy new study finds that strollers that face forwards may stunt children’s development and turn them into anxious adults.
Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, a developmental psychologist at Dundee University who carried out the study, said:
‘Our data suggests that for many babies, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful. Stressed babies grow into anxious adults.’
Infants suffer more stress and sometimes even ‘trauma’ in modern buggies with seats facing away from their parent, researchers found.
Children found it difficult to get their parents’ attention and were spoken to only rarely, at a stage of life when youngsters thrive on interaction.
In contrast, children in traditional parent-facing buggies were more likely to laugh, listen to their mothers talking and to sleep – indicating lower stress levels. The average British child spends up to two hours a day in a pushchair between birth and the age of three, the study said
Most parents use strollers with seats facing forward in line with conventional wisdom that young children like to look at the world.
When using a face-to-face stroller it was found that parents were more than twice as likely to talk to their child.
In turn, children talked more to their parents. Front-facing children were frequently unsuccessful at attracting the attention of a parent.
We recently got a stroller that faces me and I love it. It gives me the opportunity to chat my guy up while we’re out so he doesn’t get bored.
Many companies are making their strollers so that parents can switch them back and forth for convenience. This study will be a bonus for them!
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