Outward facing carriers and push chairs are "child cruelty"

[pookamoo]

Surely not so?

We had a pram and then a pushchair for DD which faced the pusher, and turned her round when she was about 2, and then she would usually tell us which way she wanted the pushchair...
But we got a sling when she was a colicy, sad 4 month old, and she howled when facing in, but was happy and content facing out!

Doesn't it depend on the child?

(ok, so I am listening to Jeremy Vine - so shoot me! )

Too right, PrincessScrumpy. There is more to life than pushchairs for the vast majority of children!

What utter nonsense. DS was in a Maclaren that went flat from birth and is a completely normal and happy child. He loved facing outwards as he was very curious about the world from day one (and still is). When I occasionally put him in a sling facing me he used to crane his neck round to see where we were going! He was also an early talker so no truth in that nonsense either.

I also got lots of lovely comments from strangers who I think weren't used to seeing small babies "out in the world" instead of hidden inside a pram.

I am now pg with number 2 and will use the Maclaren again with no concerns. I see no reason to fork out for two different prams/pushchairs.

Most people don't leave them in there for hours though do they? I can't see that they spend long enough in there for it to make any difference at all tbh.

I've got twins and there are hardly any parent facing twin prams! We've got one - the iCandy pear, and it's a heap of crap, and takes ages to assemble so I usually take the mclaren cos I can open it with one hand.

If someone can find me an inward facing twin pram which doesn't involve assembly every time you use it, I'll buy it right now.

DS is doomed then. He's always hated infacing pushchairs. I turned the maxicosi round on the chassis when he was 5 mo as a last resort during yet another grizzly walk. Bliss. No grizzling. He just loves looking where we're going, and we live in HK which is a crazy busy city so you'd think he'd freak out, but no.

I've got a Bushbaby carrier now for hiking and he loves that, but again, was never a fan of the infacing slings.

I second BagofHolly. Am expecting twins, and need an off-roader (to walk with a trauma-inducing large dog), so they'll be, er doomed then?

AM planning on the getting a Nipper with cocoons so they'll be outward facing from day one. They'd better bloody like it!

I used both for my two, dd2 hated her sling but both liked talking to me in the buggy.

Cruelty is a ridiculous word to use in this instance.

My daughter preferred to face me in the pram for the first year or so (2 now) but most of the time she was in a sling and in that case she appeared to be happier facing out.

All children and families are different and you can't give a straight answer on anything when it comes to parenting. But I do see some benefit to parent facing in the first 9 months or so.

We have a parent facing & forward facing icandypear pushchair for our twins , as mum suggested parent facing is better & less dust etc to kids. I dont know about that but, so far they are approx 5 weeks & all they do is sleep for the whole journey, therefore no eye interaction etc. so at this stage either way doesnt matter. But they are using the carrycots at the moment or the car seats which recline or are flat on their backs. Got the whole kit , economically used, as we know we wont need the equipment long as they grow so fast. It is crazy , how much parent facing chairs are new though. It was comfortable to push, despite recovering from a c-sec.

I tried the mothercare 3 way body carrier, which to me is flimsily made, & it hurts my back with 1 newborn, but they have both fallen asleep ok in it. But obviously with twins we need the double pushchair. We also need it not to be side by side, as most of our local shops have narrow walkways which don't accommodate wide chairs.

How does a parent-facing pushchair prevent the children from seeing landmarks or pointing them out?

Oh for goodness sake. I'm sure a while ago I read that forward facing prams were good for fostering independence. I think it's time to face facts that as parents we can't do right for doing wrong.

We have a m&p sola which faces both ways and DS is so nosy that he doesn't usually like being parent facing. We also had a babasling and a babybjorn, couldn't get on with the sling at all but the babybjorn was great DH and I could both use it easily and we kept DS parent facing til he was at least 6 months. Then he got too heavy.