Forward facing buggies could impede speech development

[Hulababy]

From MN's home page:

"Forward facing buggies could impede speech development"

Never heard anything so ridiculous!!!

We only ever had a forward facing pushchair for DD. She began saying her first words at 6 months and got more and more vocal. Prior to that she never stopped making a noise - babbling away to herself. At 3y8m DD never stops talking, is very clear, has a massive vocab and is a very fluent, articulate little girl.

Maybe if a child was to spend ALL day in a buggy, with no one speaking to him/her or looking at them...but really!!!

Huh? Yeah, that's pretty ridiculous. We had DD1 forward facing until she was about 4 months, then she started liftin up her head to see out - she wanted to look on her world! When we moved her face forward, she was grinning from ear to ear. People made eye contact w/her and talked to her more - which can't be bad for speech development.

i think parent / carer facing buggies are a brilliant idea, and don't know why more people don't use them. i can't bear the thought of not being able to see my lo as i push him along, and i really do think that if he can see me talking to him it will help his speech dev.

there's always an exceptional child that begins to speak at 6 months, but that doesn't mean the rest won't benefit from more time looking at and conversing with mum and dad.

i would say that though, being a speech and language therapist.

but where do you get non-forward facing buggies???

What a load of rubbish.
I read somewhere that it is better for bonding to be facing mummy when in a pram - but how boring for an older baby to just see us!
I can understand if the child is in the buggy for long, long periods of time - but they aren't in buggies for much of the day and surely it's the rest of the day that counts?

i wanted one of these but couldn't find one, except for silver cross pram which was too big and too expensive.

that is why i love my stokke xplory. i know lots of people say it is ugly and overpriced, but it is so adaptable and ds loves being able to see me and everything else.

my newborns liked to be able to see me, but by the time they are getting ready to talk they are far more interested in what's going on around them. I think it's a load of crap. Babies need nteration to learn to talk, and that's far easier and better at home.

we bought a loola for ds, he's nearly 7 mths and has been in it facing me so far (you can have the seat facing either way round), but am going to turn it round for him. he's now straining to see whats going on around him, he must be sick of the sight of my ugly mug

somethingsexyandLYcRAinmystock - I am not trying to make out my DD is exceptional at all. Hope you don't think that. She did say her first words at 6 months though - only mumma and dada granted (used in meaningful way,, not random sounds). And she is articulate now.

I guess this depends how long your child spends int he pushchair. We didn't have DD in that much - I spent far more time with her out of it, talking and interacting with her that way.

Right from being weeny DD wanted to be nosey and see the world. Or maybe vain - and wanted to smile at all the passerbys

I liked having ds facing me and did it for as long as possible with his pramette, but had to turn him round at 6mths as he was getting too big and wanted to sit up. He does like facing forward now and the attention he gets, but I would prefer to se able to see him better. There is a distinct lack of parent-facing models though (seems to be unfashionable), which is fine for later on, but I just think newborns at least should be parent-facing. They have to be more protected and secure that way.

I preferred being able to see my babies and they also seemed to like it that way, never did that peering-round-the-edges thing. What I didn't like about their buggies is that the child is so low down in them you have to peer into the depths to see and talk to them.

But I don't think buggies hinder development, unless there is no interaction between parent and child, in which case there's something more seriously amiss than mere buggy usage.

'no interaction at all' I mean!

I had a forward facing buggy, but ds spent most of his time in a sling, and then a hipseat. His speech is amazing - which I put down to the sling. However I don't think the time he spent in his buggy harmed his speech in any way.

In the days all prams faced the mothers - didn't they leave them at the bottom of the garden for hours at a time? Not much interaction there.

I dont think it matters in the early weeks which they face out but surely it better from 3 months when they become aware of the world to look out at everything around them rather than their mums face and sky?

both my children have/had forward facing buggies - they see/saw me all flipping day - so I was kind of nice for them to see something different (and where they were going) when out in the pushchair.

Absolute cobblers IMHO

dd was in a forward facing push chair, it didn't stop me taking to her , or her answering me. She started to speak at 11 months and has seldom shut up since!

Her vocaulary is very advanced

Hmm. With dd I was all for doing everything to advance her development. With ds I've decided he will get there under his own steam in his own time and there is precious little that I could do that would stop him.

After a full day with my 3.6 year old I wish her speech development was delayed. I'm hoping ds takes a good long time to develop speech.

i like ahving my kids facing me, even at 9months i have dd3 facing me where possible. she likes it to as the other two dd will talk to her as they push the pram.

perhaps if you live in ChavLand, push your buggy around all day, fag in hand and only communicate with your child totell him to shut up.......then yeah, FW-facing bugs are bad.

If, on the othe hand, you are one of the majority of parents who talk all the time to your sprog then the direction of their buggy will make f*ck all difference to language development.

FGS, I hate headline-grabbing, poorly thought out "studies" like this.

Growl, parpitty-parp

I misread the title as "Forward facing budgies could impede speech development"

Suppose that for a minority of mothers the fact that sprog faces away and is obscured by a hood doesn't encourage them to communicate with their babies/toddlers. If they regularly spend prolonged periods of time like that some might be affected but doubt there is much hard data to substantiate this.

Generally speaking it is just one of those theories which comes around every so often. If you go for one of those travel systems to get them to face you then you are supposed to be harming the baby's posture - can't really win ! Have to say I did like mine facing me though and deliberately bought a 3 in 1 and later a 3 wheeler which could go either way.

My colleague bought one so that babe could face her. i saw her at a fun run with babe at 12 months old craning around to see all the other runners, direction of travel etc. Whilst all the time this woman crooned - "Look at mummy darling, it's bad for your speech to not look at mummy". At the time I wondered what the bloomin eck she was talking about - but I think now I know.

The fact that she talked to her daughter exclusively in an Eastern European language in an English speaking country and the kid never left home without a relative could have damaged it more (well certainly as far as speaking English goes).

I could only afford one that faced away from me. The 3 wya ones/pramette/pram ones were way too expensive. Also have a tiny house and a big one would not have been able to be stored in my porch. We could have done one with the car seat facing you but isn't that supposed to be bad for their spines for hours on end.