What age did you put your baby in front facing push chair?

[ThatTwinklyEagle]

Just wondering what age you put your baby in a front facing push chair? We are currently using our car seat (facing me as I push) on an uppa baby frame. The car seat is feeling a bit small now (ds is almost 8 months and a big boy!) we don’t have a push chair that will allow ds to face me, only to face forwards, and I worry it is too soon for him and he’ll wonder where we’ve gone! Thank you 😊

By that logic, we also shouldn't bother reading books with them because they'll learn to read eventually and why bother practicing language skills? They'll pick it up at some point. Doing what is best for your child's development doesn't mean that if you don't, they'll be behind forever. It means doing your best to help them develop, as best they can. Having the buggy facing you for as long as possible, is what is best for the child's development. People's opinions on it being "nice" for them to sit forward is nothing more than that - a random opinion, not based on any fact.

And being in the car seat for longer than a couple of hours, really is bad for them. Like Bumbo seats. They might not cause massive long term damage, but why would you want to cause any kind of damage to your child? Using a car seat as a regular buggy is wrong and no one should be doing it.

We're all exhausted because being a parent is exhausting. Part of parenting is keeping up with the latest safety advice and following it - so your child is safe. If you find following simple safety advice to be "contributing to anxiety and mental load" and not to be a great way of knowing your child is safe and well cared for, then I'm sorry you feel that way. Because, for me, knowing that I'm doing everything right in terms of keeping my child safe, makes me feel calmer than just making it up as I go along and making assumptions.

Of course worrying about these things adds to anxiety because it's impractical to follow them all the time. There may well be good reasons for having to keep a baby in a car seat for slightly longer than is recommended, for example, because you have a long car ride and it's impractical to make a stop every hour, or you need to go to the shops and don't want to wake the baby so attaching the car seat to the buggy frame is better. Or you can't have a parent-facing buggy because all the compact ones are world-facing, or the one you got handed down is a world-facing and you can't afford to buy a different one. The worry and mental space taken up by these concerns is just not worth it for the negligible impact (good or bad) they're going to have on your child. But if it makes you calmer then I say good for you. Just don't imply you're a better parent than people who make different choices with buggies or their time.

There is a huge difference between a one-off long journey and using the car seat as a buggy every single day of the week. No one should be doing that. Second hand buggies are really cheap and you can even get them for free, if you are very low income.

Like I already said, just because there won't be massive long-term negative effect, it doesn't mean that it isn't better for the child for them to be parent facing. The convenience of the parent doesn't negate the facts. We should all be making efforts to do the best we can - which includes following recommendations when we can. We can't all be perfect all the time but outright disregarding the advice for what's best for your child because you can't be bothered, is not the same or okay. I don't do the perfect things for my son every single day because I am neurodivergent and pregnant, so I am not always physically and mentally capable, but when I can I make sure I make the effort. As we all should. That feels like it should be obvious.

My 2 DC were outward facing in the buggy when they outgrew the carrycot attachment (about 3/4 months) as pushchair only forward faced (lie flat baby jogger). For a bit of perspective they were both early talkers and are of above average intelligence, in retrospect a suggestion that the way their pushchair faced could have a noticeable impact on this is laughable.

Just do whatever is most practical for you OP, it will not make a noticeable difference to your baby’s development, you don’t have to justify your choices to strangers.

My point is that parents' convenience also matters. Of course when it's issues that make a massive difference on safety, like putting your child to sleep belly up in first few months, or rear-facing in a car in first few years of life, parents should absolutely not compromise. But parents should not be going out of their to get a parent-facing buggy for the negligible impact it'll have on their children's language skills.

Fair enough - our opinions seem to generally align. My only point was that if it's not too much trouble for you to get a rear-facing buggy, then it's the best option but yeah, if it's something that is a big challenge for the parent, then it's not the most important thing.

Agreed!

We have the uppababy and the seat unit can face either way. Baby was in the seat unit about 4 months parent facing.

Baby is now 17 months and I change seat orientation depending on factors such as where we're going, babies mood etc. If we're going to a farm and intention is for baby to be able to look around then forward facing. If baby is grumpy/tired/clingy then I'll still parent face.

I think this nails it.

It's a bit like breast v bottle. Breast is best and if you can breast feed that's great, but formula is also fine.

Parents facing is best, but if you can't manage that your child isn't going to be a lifelong mute and you shouldn't worry that they will.

If you've got a buggy that goes both ways, turning them away from you because you think it's better for them to see traffic/pets etc. is misguided and you would be doing your child a favour by turning the buggy round to face you.

We have a Vista V2. DD went into the pushchair (from the carrycot) at around 5 months, and was parent-facing until 11 months when we switched to forward facing. We did that because she entered a buggy-hating phase and it was all to do with not being able to see the world. She was much happier after we switched her!