Babies in buggies facing away from parents are stressed
Babies pushed in buggies facing away from parents could suffer lasting psychological harm, scientists claimed today.
The "emotionally impoverished" state of the children is revealed in a study of the psychological effects of buggies.
The study found that babies in away-facing buggies -- the more popular kind -- appeared to suffer more stress than those facing their parent.
They were also found to be significantly less likely to talk, laugh, and interact with their parents.
Almost 3,000 parent-infant pairs were studied as part of the research by Dundee University for the Talk To Your Baby early language campaign of the National Literacy Trust.
In one experiment, 20 babies were pushed for a mile, half the journey being spent in an away-facing buggy and the other in a toward-facing one.
It was discovered that 25pc of parents using face-to-face buggies talked to their baby -- more than twice as many as those using away-facing buggies. Babies facing towards the buggy-pusher were found to experience a reduced heart rate and were twice as likely to fall asleep, suggesting they were less stressed.
Laughing
Mothers and infants who had a chance to use both types of buggy laughed more frequently with face-to-face buggies. Only one baby in the group of 20 laughed during the away-facing journey, while half laughed during the face-to-face journey.
Researcher Dr Suzanne Zeedyk said: "If babies are spending significant amounts of time in a buggy, that undermines their ability to communicate easily with their parent.
"At an age when the brain is developing more than it will ever again in life, this has to impact negatively on their development.
"Our data suggests that for many babies today, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful. Stressed babies grow into anxious adults. It is time that we began carrying out larger scale research on this issue."
Laura Barbour of the Sutton Trust, which funded the research, added: "The Sutton Trust hopes that buggy manufacturers will look closely at this research, which suggests that face-to-face models improve communication at a very early stage.''
- Andrew Hamilton
