I colleague at my previous place of work was busy telling me the other day to “mark her words”, that front facing baby-buggies were nothing but trouble, and that research would prove her correct. Now while I respect this colleague I filed this idea under “crazy talk”, and moved on.
Well, I’ll now admit I might have been wrong. If this study in the United Kingdom has scientific merit, then my (ex-)colleague could well be right. I was in fact gobsmacked when I read the story.
In a nutshell what the article reports is that children who travel in front-facing buggies, as opposed to the old-school backwards or parent-facing buggies, are more stressed and less socially aware than babies that face their parent. Apparently, face-to-face buggies result in more parent-child interaction, and less ability for the child to follow cues provided by their role model.
Interesting stuff right? Kind of makes sense in some fancy psycho-sociological framework, and probably has a sound scientific basis.
But I’m thinking that the study probably didn’t really get to the nubbin of what could be going on in the minds of these wee people. Let’s look at two stats. First, heart rates of babies in away-facing prams (probably of the three-wheeled “jogger-pusher” types extremely popular these days) are slightly higher than face-to-face prams. Second, babies in away-facing prams “sleep” 27%, while face-to-face “sleep” 52%. What the hell that stat means I don’t actually know. I’m assuming the reporter means that babies in face-to-face prams spend more time sleeping.
Intuitively, this makes a lot of sense. Babies can start out with fairly rudimentary sight, but it improves rapidly. The real issue for an infant is that they haven’t really worked out what it is that they’re looking at. You can apparently help your infant develop by providing them with black and white pictures of general resolution that allow them to improve their sight.
Simple stuff. Babies can see shapes and colours, but they only recognise things up close, like a parent’s face, the breast, etc. Things far away though they see, but don’t yet recognise.
So, and here’s the clincher. If you put a baby in a front-facing pram they’re not looking at something they recognise, but a whole lot of stuff they don’t. Which is probably confusing for them. Not stressful, but new, meaning that their wee brains are working hard to sort out.
Now combine that with moving forward, at speed, towards a blur of colour, sounds, and lights. Worse, some parents run with these prams, meaning that the baby is hurtling through space, with no point of reference.
Is it any wonder they end up feeling like this:
30 November, 2008 at 3:21 pm
Actually even facial recognition takes a few months. There is the ability to ‘see’ but also being able to ‘percieve’ two very different abilities.
30 November, 2008 at 6:11 pm
We have a pram that swings both ways, so to speak. Now I know why our children seemed stupid after the away facing trips, and interested in discussing Wittgenstein when facing us.
What I’d like is a study showing that your baby’s brain development is slowed if you keep them in a buggy the whole bloody time. That could have some merit.
30 November, 2008 at 6:52 pm
A few years ago, there came on the market some parent-facing versions of those 4wd buggies. And at the time I remember reading a letter to the Herald from someone moaning about them because it gave babies the “boring” sight of their parent’s face to look at all the time and deprived them of the variety of the outside world. Oh, and it meant that other people couldn’t smile the the baby, which I think was the letter writer’s main complaint.
1 December, 2008 at 6:49 am
the only rear-facing i can think of around here are the ridiculously high-end buggies. maybe i just wasn’t paying attention.
ironically, when oliver was in a stroller, he would lose it if he wasn’t moving. i suppose he liked feeling dazed.
1 December, 2008 at 12:51 pm
I stumbled into “baby wearing” with my 2nd and 3rd babies. This meant I could stick the toddler inthe forward facing stroller and carry baby in a sling – no need for a double pram. I am not all evangelical about it but I found it convenient and much easier than lumping a great big pram everywhere. It was also nicer having baby close – I hip carried #2 as a toddler in a sling quite a bit too. I think there are definite psycho/social merits to this form of baby transport as well
1 December, 2008 at 9:16 pm
Oh and making your own baby sling or wrap is incredibly easy and cheap (even for the sewing impaired like myself) making it very frugal.
2 December, 2008 at 12:07 am
I found the “facing me” pram very reassuring with my elder daughter; I could see that she was happy (or not). The only time that it seemed to be difficult was once when I ended up carrying a very elderly woman’s groceries for her, and my six month old daughter was terrified by the old woman’s wrinkly face. She howled and howled, and eventually I had to turn the pram around and pull it behind me.
We had to get a forward facing pushchair with our twins – no choice. It was disconcerting, for me, even with the peephole in the top.