Forward-facing strollers give your child a view to the world around him. Of course this view has a trade off – your child sees less of you. A British study suggests that this view may undermine children's development by their interaction with their parents. What does this study mean, and what are its ramifications for parents?

An observational study of 2,722 parent-infant pairs across the country was carried out by Dr. Suzanne Zeedyk, a developmental psychologist at Dundee University's School of Psychology. She also conducted a smaller experimental study of 20 babies wheeled in buggies across a mile stretch. Half of the journey was spent in an away-facing buggy, and half in a toward-facing buggy. The results suggest that parents talk less to their children in away-facing buggies, and children in face-to-face strollers are less likely to exhibit signs of stress.

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

In the unexpected media storm that has surrounded the launch of the report, one of the key messages the authors have hoped people will take from the work is the importance of talking to your baby – regardless of the direction of the buggy. Also lost in the discussion is the fact that it was teachers who initially raised concerns about the possible effects of strollers on children's language development.

Dr. Zeedyk cautioned this data is specific to Britain. "We haven't any data on how much talking goes on from parents in other countries when out in buggy journeys with children – and this would make a difference to the wider points of the research, as applied in any particular country," she says.

Dr. Zeedyk says that away-facing strollers are the most common – and inexpensive – on the market, so her speculation is that it is likely that they are the most common in all countries where strollers are used. It also may be that parents in the United States may talk more to their infants than was found to be the case for parents in the United Kingdom. This would have a big impact on any longer-term effects of baby buggies. So a next step in this whole area is to do more cross-cultural research on the use of baby buggies.

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