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!!!

I still think the parent / carer facing ones are better, but each to their own of course.

hulababy

first words at 6 months is exceptional, first words used with intention usually start around 12 months, but i didn't think you were bragging or anything.

Ruty

Britax do a forward and rear facing pushchair, as do bebecar, and some others too. I've got a big silver cross one, which i can't wait to use, loved it with my dd, who also loved her baby kingdom, full of toys and snacks. We used the pram till she was about 2, but a pushchair too for the car.

or is it bebecomfort, i can't remember, there's a thread on here somewhere about rear facing pushchairs, i think i started it a few months ago when i was looking to buy one.

each to their own income more like

haven't read any posts - just popped on during the ads

but I've always disliked forward facing buggies and could never understand why they were designed like that - don't know about you, but I look to look at my kids!

I have a Silver Cross Wayfarer - you can have the seat facing you or away, it just flips over - LOVE, LOVE, LOVE that pushchair.

But I think this study is crap unless teh child is in it all day.

I agree entirely that the statement is slightly ludicrous (although they do only say "could" - there are obviously loads of other factors to take into account), however, I have recently sold my forward-facing Pramette because I hated not being able to see dd and she, in turn, seemed to hate not seeing me - would get really grouchy sometimes and I'd have to keep stopping and walking round to the front to talk to and reassure her. She's 9months btw.

I replaced the pramette with a Stokke Xplory which is absolutely fantastic - dd can see much more because she is high, and can see me. She is now much happier and although she doesn't spend hours in the pram, when she is in it we "chat" the whole time and I can point things out to her etc. Doing the school run twice a day I see loads of other mums pushing prams and tbh a lot of the babies look a bit glum and/or bored, whereas dd2 is (almost always!) jolly and vocal!

It was so hard to find a rear-facing pushchair (which lay flat as well) - apart from the Xplory there was only a Quinny Buzz or the Loola (which had really low handles).

Gosh you must have all spent sooo much money on pushchairs. My ds has loved seeing the world go by and is incredibly sociable. Even at 6 weeks old he was craining his neck around when held to look at everything. I would have liked to look at him when he was little but haven't got the disposable income that you all seem to have.

Mamas and Papas 2/3 in 1's are lie-flat and can be forward facing or facing you. Cheap on Ebay too!

Contrary to the opinion that if your baby's pram faces you (and if you and others talk and interact a lot with your baby) their speech will come on quicker; DS1 had a pram that faced us until he was about 2, and he had so much interaction and talking from not just us but all of the extended family who dote on him.

Despite all this, he has had a speech delay, didn't start talking until he was nearly 3, and still has pronunciation issues at nearly 4.

DS2 had exactly the same situation as a baby as DS1, and at 27 months is chattering away in long clear sentences.

And I have seen lots of Mums around and in my work situation who could be said to "live in ChavLand, push your buggy around all day, fag in hand and only communicate with your child to tell him to shut up", and a lot of their children were little chatterboxes whose speech was quite advanced.

IMO if a child's speech is going to be delayed, or advanced, it will be regardless of their buggy, etc.

lol how stupid they must be bored again lol all my children were early speakers in pushchairs facing both ways we changed them about lol no problems with any of my kids lol

thank god they do...
if I had not put ds1 in one, he'd never have shut up he is now 13 and feels it vital to fille very pause with words, clever as anything but sheesh...