Babies Stressed Out By Buggies

Babies pushed in buggies facing away from their parents could suffer lasting psychological damage, scientists claim.

Children made to face away from their carers are more likely to end up anxious adults, the first ever study on the effects of buggies has revealed.

The away-facing babies in the research were "emotionally impoverished", laughed less, talked less and suffered more stress than those facing their parent.

Almost 3,000 parent-infant pairs were studied as part of the research by Dundee University for the Talk To Your Baby early language campaign of the National Literacy Trust.

In one experiment, 20 babies were pushed for a mile, half the journey spent in an away-facing buggy and the other in a toward-facing one.

A quarter of parents using face-to-face buggies talked to their baby - more than twice as many as those using away-facing buggies.

Babies facing towards the buggy-pusher enjoyed a reduced heart rate and were twice as likely to fall asleep.

Only one baby in the group of 20 laughed during the away-facing journey, while half laughed during the face-to-face journey.

Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, from Dundee University's School of Psychology, said: "If babies are spending significant amounts of time in a baby buggy, that undermines their ability to communicate easily with their parent.

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