Because I don't trust baby gear.

I am really passionate about the issue of baby gear. I define "gear" as any man-made device meant to help or enhance the care and development of our children. I believe that we do not need any of it, and most everything designed to "help" our kids actually hinders their development in some way.


A short list of products that drive me the most batty:
Bumbos/Bebe Pod
Doorway bouncers
Exersaucers

The reasons I dislike these three devices in particular basically sums up why I dislike most baby gear. Babies just don't need it in order to develop, and we unwittingly cause undue strain on our kids, and really limit their potential for brain development, when we put them in these things.

For example, the Bumbo, designed to "help" a baby sit up before they are ready to do so on their own, puts a lot of stress on their developing spine, limits the baby's opportunity to develop the muscles needed to be able to sit up on their own, and, most importantly, limits brain development because the child is not learning, on their own, how to sit up. If you do it for them, they won't make the connection in their brain that "oh, if I move my leg this way, and put my arm down this way, I can sit up like this." Instead they learn "if I cry, mom will put me in my chair so I can sit up."

What REALLY makes me mad about the Bumbo is all the *great* reviews it gets and how much parents love it. It is really difficult to find any documentation, blog or otherwise, that supports the point of view that this is a dangerous device that should be used with careful consideration and at most only a few minutes at a time. The only negative press this thing gets is from a recall telling parents not to set the thing on a table top or counter or their kid might fall down and break their head. What would parents think if this was recalled because of how it hinders brain development? The closest we've come to that was the Baby Einstein recall, when all of their products were marketed as "educational" while many studies show that any tv watching by infants is, actually, not educational at all. But that is another topic to explore later. You can ask a pediatric physical therapist about Bumbos, they use them sometimes for serious cases of developmental delays or other special needs babies, but for a normally developing kid, they'll tell you what I'm telling you. A few minutes a day - max.

I was just reading some Bumbo reviews and someone is saying it encourages good posture. What! Why does a 4 month old baby need "good posture"?! and in what way can it possibly encourage that! It does the exact opposite, it puts strain on the spine, hips, knees, legs. How can that encourage good posture later in life if the child has to compensate for that strain? Also, if you search for "bumbo review", you will only find good reviews. If you search for something like "bumbo development" or "bumbo spine", you'll get the real story. Here is my favorite review of the Bumbo. It is not written from the POV of a physical therapist (though I would love to find a review that is), but it puts some real common sense into the practical use of a Bumbo, regardless of the claims about whether it helps or hinders development:

http://www.babygizmo.com/news/bumbo.php

Back to what I was talking about...

A doorway bouncer (or any kind of bouncer, really), encourages the baby's leg muscles to develop faster than the bone that supports the leg. It also adds stress to the spine.

Exersaucers follow the same pattern, too much stress on the spine, encourages muscle growth before bone growth, limits the baby's ability to form necessary connections in the brain.

I never would have thought to question the safety or risks of using these very popular tools had I not had the (mis?)fortune of working with physical therapists when my son was 0-9months old. I feel like the information these professionals have is hidden to most parents. Who would ever suspect that this thing, whose packaging claims how great it is for your baby, that gets RAVE reviews from parents, could possibly do any harm at all?

Questioning product safety isn't generally a way that parents are taught to think about buying or using any baby product. But now I question everything. Does my baby really need this in order to develop (mentally, physically, emotionally) normally? What do parents in impoverished countries use instead of this? (generally, the answer to this question is "nothing", because you really don't _need_ any of this stuff to raise your kids). I think about the possible un-marketed, hidden, unstudied effects of its use, and I take that into consideration before I buy anything. Most of the time, I heave a big sigh and put it back on the shelf, it looks so fun and I know my kid would like it! But I have to be more vigilant and trust in my sons' ability to develop without "help".

Another aspect to baby gear is the parent's need. Almost all of this stuff is developed because the parent needs it - not the baby. In general, we don't live near family anymore. There is no village to help us raise our children. So we have to build -things- to take the place of those extra hands. Parenting is hard, we need a break sometimes, and if the only way to get that break is to put the baby in a bouncer, well, there are worse things that could happen.


Being aware of the risks of all these products is what is important. If you know what the potential risk is, then you can limit the use to only what you absolutely need, and balance that with an adequate amount of time that the baby spends on the floor flat on their back and on their tummies, or in your arms.

-NinaMama

Disclaimer:
I am a bit of a hypocrite. I bought a Bumbo, before I knew the risks. Thank goodness it broke before I had a chance to use it (wondering how you can possibly break a bumbo? well, the two-tone ones with something that looks like a removable handle where the tray goes... that piece isn't actually removable, unless you pull really, really hard. really.). I used the doorway jumper, but never more than 5 minutes a day, so I could go to the bathroom or just rest my arms for a bit. By the time my kid was big/old enough for an exersaucer, I felt I "knew better" and didn't even bother with it.