Away-facing prams 'may harm babies psychologically'

Researchers at the University of Dundee have found that babies could be left 'emotionally impoverished' if being pushed in buggies facing away from their parents.

This is because, according to the researchers, babies are less likely to be sleeping, laughing or interacting with their parents if they're sitting in the popular forward-facing pushchairs, 'The Daily Telegraph' reported.

And, what's shocking is that the study also found that babies can have faster heart rates if they are unable to look at their carers while being pushed through the streets and may even have higher levels of stress.

The study's lead author, Dr Suzanne Zeedyk, said: "Our data suggests that for many babies today, life in a buggy is emotionally impoverished and possibly stressful. Stressed babies grow into anxious adults."

They found that the direction of the buggy had a significant impact on the child's behaviour, with 70 per cent of those in away-facing buggies remaining silent, compared with 43 per cent in forward-facing ones.

In addition, 27 per cent of the babies in away-facing buggies were asleep, compared with 52 per cent in face-to-face ones; six per cent of the infants were turning round in a bid to attract their parents' attention, while others were crying.

And, the mothers and fathers were half as likely to be talking to their children in away facing buggies than in face-to-face ones, the study found.

Only one baby laughed during their trip in an away-facing buggy, compared with ten in a face-to-face model, while heart rates were slightly lower in the infants who were first taken out in away-facing buggies then switched to the more relaxing forward-facing pushchair.

The researchers also found the parents spoke an average of 15.50 sentences per minute when using toward-facing buggies, but just 6.11 in away-facing ones.

"It looks, from our results, that it is time that we began carrying out larger scale research on this issue. Parents deserve to be able to make informed choices as to how to best promote their children's emotional, physical, and neurological development," Dr Zeedyk said.