I always wondered what the effects of all the containerization we subject kids to these days might be. From carseats to strollers to high chairs to motorized baby swings, we love to place our babies inside of plastic containers removed from human contact.
It didn’t seem like the effects could be good. My kids howl whenever I stick them in their lonely carseats, although the sensory deprivation eventually puts them to sleep.
Researchers in Britain wondered, too, and have found evidence that, indeed, forward-facing strollers, which cut children and parents off from almost all sensory contact with each other—no touch, no eye contact, on noisy streets we can't even hear each other—have bad effects. Spending a lot of time in one of these strollers apparently retards children’s language development.
I fear that the stroller controversy will become one more thing for moms to feel guilty about and one more thing for poor folks who can’t afford fancy front-back convertible strollers to get beat up about. Keep in mind, though, a swag of cloth tying a baby to your body beats the fanciest stroller any day.
(And I’m still unconvinced by the efforts to tell parents that a fancy crib is better than sleeping with their babies. Last I checked we were still mammals, and mammal babies need touch. To convince me otherwise, show me the research and don’t sweep all those crib recalls under the rug.)
It didn’t seem like the effects could be good. My kids howl whenever I stick them in their lonely carseats, although the sensory deprivation eventually puts them to sleep.
Researchers in Britain wondered, too, and have found evidence that, indeed, forward-facing strollers, which cut children and parents off from almost all sensory contact with each other—no touch, no eye contact, on noisy streets we can't even hear each other—have bad effects. Spending a lot of time in one of these strollers apparently retards children’s language development.
I fear that the stroller controversy will become one more thing for moms to feel guilty about and one more thing for poor folks who can’t afford fancy front-back convertible strollers to get beat up about. Keep in mind, though, a swag of cloth tying a baby to your body beats the fanciest stroller any day.
(And I’m still unconvinced by the efforts to tell parents that a fancy crib is better than sleeping with their babies. Last I checked we were still mammals, and mammal babies need touch. To convince me otherwise, show me the research and don’t sweep all those crib recalls under the rug.)
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