"Yet another reason to wear the babies."

Said Christy P, who sent me a link to this CNN.com story with the note, "It's kind of a 'duh' finding, but now someone has studied it."

Study:  Away-facing strollers stress babies

The research found that children not facing the person pushing them were significantly less likely to talk, laugh and interact with their parents.

Based on a study of 2,722 parents and children, the study by Dundee University's School of Psychology calls into question the designs of many of the world's most popular baby strollers.

"Our experimental study showed that, simply by turning the buggy around, parents' rate of talking to their baby doubled," said developmental psychologist Suzanne Zeedyk, who led the research.

..."Our data suggests that for many babies today, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful," Zeedyk said.

The study found that 62 percent of all children observed traveled in forward-facing prams. For children between the ages of one and two, the figure was 86 percent.

I don't own a stroller.  I do talk to my babies constantly while out and about --- sort of an extension of my habit of muttering to myself --- which frequently startles bystanders.  Can't count how often someone's jumped and commented, "Oh, I thought you were talking to me!  But you were really talking to that little baby!"

As if she was a real person.  Yeah.

Comments

[Cathie B]

The whole reason I bought the stroller I did was for that very reason. In fact BOTH seats can turn toward me and very often are that way, except now 3 yo wants to see the world more than me...sigh.