Parent-facing strollers are better for child development.

Here’s another reason to put Orbit Baby at the top of your stroller shopping list: this recent study shows the importance of having a child face their parent while strolling, facilitating interaction and a feeling of security for the child.  The study strongly advocates “turning the buggies around,” which is a quick and easy motion with the Orbit Stroller, thanks to the SmartHub™ that makes ours the world’s first rotating stroller.

An excerpt from this study states:

“Away-facing buggies were found to be associated with a reduction in speaking for both parents and infants; for infants, the reduction rate was one-third and for parents, the rate of speech halved. Interestingly, infants in toward-facing buggies were twice as likely to be sleeping as infants in away-facing buggies, an unexpected finding that has tentatively been interpreted as an indicator of stress levels.”

While many other strollers have a rear-facing (“toward-facing”) setting, there is no other stroller in the world that is easier to turn than Orbit Baby’s.  When we were designing our stroller, we saw that with the dock-and-rotate interface, Orbit Baby users were much more likely to actually turn their child around, since they can do it while their child is still sitting in the stroller.  No other stroller provides such an easy rotating functionality.  Parents using other strollers tend to not turn their babies around since they either have to take their child out to do it, or they have to compromise the steering of their stroller by orienting the steering wheels to rear instead of the front.

At Orbit Baby, our philosophy is centered around genuine benefits for parents and children, and real-world studies drive our design before we ever sketch a single component.  This study gives us confidence that we continue to lead the industry in family-friendly travel gear that helps enrich the lives of our growing kids.

 

More information:

“We found that forward-facing strollers were by far the most common, but that babies in them were the least likely to be interacting socially.” – The New York Times: One Ride Forward, Two Steps Back

“Parents who choose a stroller that seats their baby facing away from them could risk long-term development problems in their children, according to a study published Friday.”– CNN.com: Away-facing stroller stress babies

“Mothers and infants were both more likely to laugh in the towards-facing orientation.” – Literacy Trust press release

What’s life in a baby buggy like?: The impact of buggy orientation on parent-infant interaction and infant stress. – Research study carried out by Dr. M. Suzanne Zeedyk, University of Dundee School of Psychology