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Nov 21, 2008 3:40 pm US/Central
Study: Facing Street In Stroller Stresses Baby Out
CHICAGO (CBS) ―
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A new study says babies who face the street while riding in strollers could get stressed out, compared to infants facing mom or dad.
CBS
Parents of babies and toddlers have so much to worry about, but now a research study about strollers has some scratching their heads.
As CBS2's Suzanne Le Mignot explains the way your baby sits in the stroller can lead to stress.
Three-month-old Bella always faces her mother Lisa Meyerowitz when they're on a stroll. Mom Lisa says there's a reason.
"She's always happier when she can talk to me, look at me, just even see my eyes, and I'm always talking to her knowing that she can't understand a thing I'm saying, but I talk to her anyway," the mother said. "So, just anything to make her feel more secure."
Bella's mother's routine is in sync with the results of a British study. It says babies facing their moms and dads in strollers have less stress, lower heart rates and talked and laughed more. The infants are two times more likely to fall asleep. Parents also talk to their babies more when they're face to face.
"The more you engage with your child, the more secure they will be later on," Meyerowitz said. "I definitely believe studies that say that."
Nearly 3,000 parents and their infants were studied. Babies in away-facing strollers were talked to less. The study also found babies in that position could be more stressed, which could lead them to grow into anxious adults.
One father had an issue with that finding.
"I think it would be pretty hard to prove something like that," Daniel Greene said. "I think there's a lot more to raising a child than whether they're facing forward or facing backward in a stroller, right? There's a lot of other ways to interact with them."
Mother Gemma Samuel says while the study looked at infants, there is a time to face your child forward. Her son is 2.
"I think, as they get a little bit older, they need to be able to kind of see the world and interact with strangers coming along, walk around the super market and see things," Samuel said.
Those selling strollers say there are options out there for parents.
"It can be facing forward, so they can see the world, and what's going on around them," Debbie Feiler of Beautiful Beginnings said while demonstrating one $700 model. "And then, if they're fussy you can turn it around and face mom."
Those funding the research hope stroller manufacturers look closely at the findings to see that face-to-face models improve communication at very early stages in a child's life.
(© MMIX, CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved.)
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