Talk To Your Baby buggy survey
Key findings
Over 1,000 people took part in our online buggy survey. The overwhelming majority are in favour of pusher-facing buggies. Following are the key findings.
Pusher-facing buggies are the preferred option
91% of respondents would choose a pusher-facing buggy over a forward-facing buggy if the cost were the same, although 84% would like the facility to face both ways.
Affordability is a key issue
The majority (75%) said that a pushchair facing both ways would need to be priced at below £200.
Children spend up to 2 hours a day in buggies
72% of respondents said their children spend between half an hour and two hours in a pushchair or stroller each day.
Pusher-facing buggies would improve communication
The majority (88%) said they would talk to their baby more if their child was facing the pusher.
About the survey
1,020 people took part in the online buggy survey, of which 51% were parents, a further 31% were both health/early years professionals and parents, and the remainder were practitioners, students and interested parties. The survey ran from May to December 2005.
A selection of comments from the 1,020 responses to our buggy survey
"He [18-month-old baby] had to sit in the forward-facing seat. He found this very uncomfortable, and until he got used to it (or resigned to it!), he spent weeks turning round in his seat to look at me, trying to point out the things he had seen. We both felt very upset that we couldn't see and talk to each other. Other mums I know have said the same thing, in fact, amongst my 'Mum group', it was one of the things we warned each other about, as one of the more unpleasant things we have to go through, like injections, first days back at work and giving up breastfeeding!"
"My 11-month-old daughter is very chatty. However, I've noticed that she falls silent after about 10 minutes in her forward-facing buggy, despite my best efforts to respond to her chats. Her face brightens and she immediately responds to me if I move round to the front of the buggy and chat with her. I would have loved to have bought a pushchair that would enable me to communicate with her all the time, but the only one I could find at the time was cripplingly- expensive."
"TTYB should campaign vociferously on this and FORCE the pushchair manufacturers to create a cheap pusher-facing buggy - as cheap as the present wrong-facing buggies. They would make money on quantity sales."
"I feel that it is not only valuable for speech development but it is vital to ensure that children feel safe and secure. My child is still very young and sometimes doesn't realise that we are with him until we either stop and run around the front or tip him backwards just to say 'hello'. My husband has taken to walking backwards in front of the buggy just so our son can see one of us."
"I find much the easiest (and cheapest) way to interact with her [toddler] and ensure she's safe is to carry her in a sling. I used a sling all through babyhood, so she's always been used to being part of the adult world - when we go into shops etc people always talk to her if she's being carried, but she hardly ever gets noticed if she's down in her pushchair."
"Children need to bond early with parents and carers. Maybe if a woman could design a buggy she would understand the need for communicating with the child."
"I am a paediatric speech and language therapist. I am very much in favour of pusher-facing buggies."
Other comments from early years professionals
"I am against putting very young children in forward-facing buggies. Up to the age of one the brain is at its most flexible, its most plastic. Being in a forward-facing buggy at this age is over-stimulating in the wrong way. Babies have an instinctive fear of 'looming'. By being pushed forwards, babies are experiencing a constant rush of the world 'looming' at them. They are deprived from looking at their mother and they are exposed to traffic fumes. I think mothers are affected too, because they can't talk to their babies as they walk along, so they switch off."
Robin Balbernie, consultant child psychotherapist
(Extracted from Nursery World, 2 March 2006)
"Realistically, I am not sure how much these slings will be used. It might be ok when you are pottering about at home, but when you have to lug the shopping back from the supermarket or take children to school it is easier to put the baby in the buggy. What is important is to have a buggy where the baby faces you, so you can talk to your baby."
Professor Tina Bruce, Roehampton University
(Extracted from Nursery World, 2 March 2006)
"There is overwhelming evidence on the value of talk/conversation on human development. Forward-facing buggies impede rather than support conversation especially with the very young child. This is clearly not advantageous to baby development. I see kids in buggies for whole mornings on shopping expeditions so my estimate is that we are talking about large lost opportunities for talk. If we are persuaded of the importance of talk, and it is massive, then the forward-facing buggy is unconscionable."
Professor Charles Desforges, University of Exeter
"The increasing popularity of forward-facing pushchairs makes it more difficult for parents to talk to young children."
Richard Garner, Education Editor, The Independent
(Extracted from The Independent, 3 April 2006)
"Although most parents would like a buggy where the child faces towards them, enabling talking, singing and funny-face-pulling, manufacturers of all but the most expensive buggies have designed them so that the child sits facing forwards, cut off from human interaction."
Julian Grenier, head of Kate Greenaway Nursery School and Children's Centre
(Extracted from Nursery World, 6 July 2006)
