EFFECTS OF CAR SEATS ON INFANT LEG MOVEMENT
Nowadays , babies are spending more and more time in car seats . Families are busy running to day care , extra-curricular activities for siblings and the stores . When the baby is buckled into the car seat , all too often parents just transition the car seat to the next location and plop the car seat in the grocery cart or on the floor . Hence the term “ bucket babies ”. Babies are meant to learn through movement . Therefore , babies need floor time for muscle development and cognitive exploration . Although as pediatric therapists , we are constantly encouraging exploratory play for babies there is little research on the effects of being a bucket baby .
Pediatric Physical Therapy published research on the immediate effects of constraining or encouraging positioning devices on leg movement of 13 infants with typical development ( TD ) and 13 infants at-risk for developmental delay ( AR ). Each infant was placed in the supine position ( laying on the back ), a jungle gym , or a car seat with movement sensors on their ankles measuring acceleration and angular velocity . The number of leg movements , peak acceleration , and peak rotational rate of each leg movement was calculated . The results indicated that leg movement quantity and average peak acceleration were significantly lower for the car seat condition compared with the supine position or the gym .
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