Having your baby facing away from you in their buggy is not the done thing,

[wrinklytum]

So says research from Dundee University.Apparently they are much better off in a buggy that faces the parent.

Sighs at self.Yet another parenting issue I have failed on.

do they not see/experience/learn more looking at the world around them ???

I had DD1 facing me, DD2 and 3 facing away. No noticeable difference in their communication skills.
Shall I publish my study? OK, it is a small sample, but high quality research.

I was listening to a phone-in about this on Radio London this morning. What a load of cr*p! Just another thing to make us feel guilty about. Apparently babies in buggies facing away from their parents were less smiley, responsive etc, and talked later. Both my DCs had forward facing buggies, and I always talked to them as they walked along, they could see clearly to point things out etc. I don't get the argument at all.

ds1 faced me till he was about 6-7 months old and ds2 till about the same age(can't really remember because he spent so much time in hospital but thats another story!!) but are both now happy little boys.ds1 is 5 next week and ds2 was 3 at beginning of month

Yes, this new gem appeared between DD1 and DD2. Since I didnt buy a new back-wards facing pushchair for DD2 i spent many minutes months feeling guilty about it...

At LGP.

I always talked to mine,even though they were facing away.Stopped and pointed out fire engines,wildlife,things of interest

It just seems there are so many things for parents to worry about and this is yet another thing to make people feel guilty about!

both mine have faced me (ds1 from 9mo, ds2 from birth), because my mum went on about it, and having got a rear-facer I much prefer it. Neither went forward facing as they got older.
Certainly didn't help their speach, ds2 didn't say anything until after 2, and didn't put 2 words together until 2.5+.

Who paid for this research?

Three child related articles on BBC Breakfast this morning:

We should face our children toward us as babies.

We should not praise them too much as toddlers.

We should be forced to put our 12 year olds in wrap around care and work if we don't want to / can't but only if we are single parents.

Madness!

(and yes i know i'm over simplifying but i think the experts may have some priorities wrong somewhere)

It's fairly biased towards parents with money, this kind of assertion isn't it? Cos rear facing buggies are a lot more expensive generally speaking. at wrinklytum, will text you

i read the report and to be fair it said in the scheme of things it was minor

babies on average 1/2 to 2 hours a day in buggy

i DO agree in principle with study ..but thing it a little ott

HOWEVER the very salient point it made for me was this - the baby showed stress responses to such things as animals

well - if i were to go down to buggy level and be face on to a dog I would brick it so I can imagine a baby would too....

hmm well I had a rear facing buggy with ds 1 but only untilhe was 16 months, and he is very chatty. DD1 wasin the back of the P&T band she is very chatty. However, both were carried a lot in a sling- how did slings figure in the study?

apologies for typing, bfeeding newborn!

smug moment - slings must get even more brownie points, surely?

Dd was forward facing from three months and I got told today she is the chattiest, smiliest one in her class, so [sticking out tongue emoticon] to them. And sometimes I used to walk along listening to an ipod and ignoring her as she wouldn't stop screaming. Loads of people have rear facing pushchairs and walk along looking over the hood of it while baby looks in a different direction to mum-I wouldn't call that interaction either!

Well my DD at 20 mo is still facing me in her pushchair and is only just really starting to talk. I think different children do things at different times, no matter what you do.

Anyone else dreading the comments from 'well meaning' old grannies when out with the dc (forward facing, natch) tomorrow?

I used my 3inl till ds was 2 so I had a choice of which way he faced

well actually no I didnt.. he had a choice and voiced it from an early age.. he liked to see the world and not me

Beacuse he was in the 3in1 it was a lot higher thana buggy so dogs etc werent an issue

but I hear these studies and think god have you got nowt else to think about

radio report suggested it wasn't just early communication etc that they looked at, but sleep patterns heart rate - I suppose meaning more stressed when forward facing, . I found that interesting but it just made me think that slings would top pushchairs for calm babies any day of the week.

catweazle I agree.

Also, if people who used buggy/sling combo like me were in the study, or if some of these babies were early walkers what would that do to the findings?
I chatter all the time with my children, but busy roads sometimes make it difficult to hear each other.

moroco lol very calm- it's very difficult to stop a baby falling asleep in a sling!

news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/scotland/taysid...ral/7739655.stm

Children who are put in buggies which leave them facing away from their parent could have their development undermined, a study has suggested.

Researchers found that youngsters in prams which face the pusher are more likely to talk, laugh and interact.

More than 2,700 parent-infant pairs were observed across the UK and a smaller study was done in Dundee.

Parents in away-facing buggies talked less to the child and the youngster appeared to be more stressed.

Face-to-face laughter

The research was carried out by Dr Suzanne Zeedyk from Dundee University, in collaboration with the charity the National Literacy Trust (NLT).

In total, 2,722 parent-child pairs were observed in High Streets in 54 areas around the country.

Dr Zeedyk then studied 20 babies being wheeled in prams across a one mile stretch in the centre of Dundee.

The children spent half the journey in an away-facing buggy and the other half facing towards their mothers.

Only one baby laughed during the away facing trip, while half laughed during the face-to-face journey.

The children's average heart rate also fell slightly when they were facing their mothers and they were twice as likely to fall asleep - which could indicate reduced stress levels, according to Dr Zeedyk.

Across the study, it was found that 62% of all the children observed were travelling in away-facing buggies.

The rate was even higher for those aged one or two at 82%

Parents with face-to-face prams were more than twice as likely to be talking to their child, however only 22% of all those observed were chatting with their youngster.

Dr Zeedyk said: "If babies are spending significant amounts of time in a baby 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, then this has to impact negatively on their development.

"Our experimental study showed that, simply by turning the buggy around, parents' rate of talking to their baby doubled.

"Our data suggests that for many babies today, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful. Stressed babies grow into anxious adults."

Dr Zeedyk called for a larger scale study to be carried out so parents could make the best choice about their child's development.

Bugger. Failed again. (slaps own wrist)

It's not saying any one is a bad parent, and I know from experience that is actually quite hard to find a rear facing pushchair that doesn't cost an arm and a leg, but seriously, isn't it common sense that babies are happier if they can see their mothers rather than a sea of legs and strange faces? Given the choice both of mine have preferred to be rear facing, and why anyone would put a tiny baby in a forward facing stroller is beyond me, why don't they want to be able to see thier baby? How can you tell if thier hat/gloves have come off or if the sun is in thier eyes if they are not facing you? How can you smile at them and stroke thier face if they are facing away from you?

Older toddlers are not the issue here, but babies.

Really, stop being so stroppy and guilt-ridden and just accpet that there may be some truth in the study.