On Thursday April 21st I attended the Graco Press Event in London along with my fellow ambassadors and the new Fusio testers. It was wonderful to put faces to the names and eventually meet my virtual friends in person! It was an interesting and informative meeting that focused on the interaction of parents with their babies. Experts Emma Kenny and Suzanne Zeedyk gave entertaining and thought provoking presentations.
Psychologist Emma Kenny
Babies are born connected. They thrive when given the stimuli of attentive, loving parents who communicate with them from birth. Many years ago, all babies were proudly wheeled around in the high Silvercross prams facing their parent or Nanny. Over the years, efficiency and engineering took priority over the designs of products for the nursery industry, and pushchairs became the efficient, forward-facing, swivel wheeled creations we see today. But in striving for this design, we are neglecting the element of interaction between parent and child.
In the first three years of the baby's life, its brain grows at its most rapid rate. Interaction plays an enormous part in its growth and development. Babies are born connected to others. A newborn baby will instinctively try to mimic us and will respond to familiar stimuli from the womb. The baby can differentiate between voices and recognise music that was listened to in-utero. Babies respond to attention and this love and nurturing helps form neural pathways in the brain, helping the baby to make sense of its environment.
It is this interaction that is at the forefront of Graco's latest pushchair designs. The Fusio and the Symbio both have the rearward facing feature, allowing babies and toddlers to enjoy communicating with their parents when out and about. Mum and Dad can chat to, sing with and have eye contact with their precious little ones. This reduces baby's stress levels in the face of life's hectic environments and helps them feel safe and content. This aids their mental and emotional development and helps the neural pathways develop. It also releases Oxytocin into the bloodstream which is the "feel good" hormone which will help our babies feel happy! Giving our babies this start in life can help them become more confident as they grow up.
I am proud to be an ambassador for Graco, a company at the forefront of innovative designs which help secure the bond between parent and child during these all too important formative years. Giving children the best start in life, may give rise to the next generation being more secure, loving, empathic, happy and well rounded. It certainly wouldn't hurt to try and make the world a better place!!
