Dr. Jena (00:05)
Welcome to the driving develop.
Dr. Jena (00:12)
Welcome to the Driving Development Podcast, the podcast for parents, therapists, and caregivers navigating child development in a world increasing in opinions and decreasing in critical thinking. I'm Jenna Schultz, pediatric physical therapist, educator, and mom of two. Each week we'll break down the research challenge assumption. Each week we'll break down the research challenge assumption. Each week we'll break down the research, challenge assumptions, and help you make informed decisions for your family.
Dr. Jena (00:42)
Because child development isn't about doing everything perfectly. It's about understanding the options and choosing what works best for your child. Let's get started.
Dr. Jena (00:54)
I'm one of those moms that'll get overstimulated and throw everything away away. That's like in my sight. So our playroom is like let's
Dr. Jena (01:04)
I'm one of those moms that will get overstimulated and throw everything in my side away. Our playroom is let's just let's just say it's been played in. there's things I've purchased, I wish I hadn't, stuff that I had to s there's things I've purchased I wish I hadn't. There's stuff that is hard to store or impossible to keep every piece together and it's a lot. but with many years of experience comes understanding that this is inescapable, stuff is gonna be stuff.
Dr. Jena (01:33)
You'll find stuff. one of my goals is to have less stuff. And speaking of stuff, today I'm talking about the stuff I wish didn't exist. Or to be clear, the baby products I wish didn't exist. As we go into this topic, I want to be clear, I won't be naming any brands by name. I won't be shaming a universal thing. but the goal is to bring in critical thinking as always, to lead to informed purchases with a few things in mind: safety, efficacy,
Dr. Jena (02:03)
sustainability and practicality.
Dr. Jena (02:09)
I've realized there's two kinds of people. People who walk into a baby store and buy diapers and then walk out. where where are you guys and how do you do this? but there's also people who walk into a baby store somehow leave with a wipe warmer matching outfit set, a sensory toy, an infant spoon made from ethically sourced bamboo. you know, at a receipt long enough to basically be a legal document. And I
Dr. Jena (02:38)
was absolutely the second person as a first-time parent. I thought I needed everything. I registered for everything because when you're pregnant or newly postpartum, every product is marketed like it's the missing piece of your parenting puzzle. So like this is gonna help you maybe sleep, develop, learn, get into Harvard, you know, I d and suddenly you're standing in a aisle, like just looking at everything, being like, you know what, maybe I do need
Dr. Jena (03:07)
The seventy dollar baby activity mat.
Dr. Jena (03:12)
That tracks my baby's moon sign. I the older I get, the more convinced I am that baby products exist on a spectrum. And so on one end there's the products that genuinely solve problems, and in the middle there's some products that are, you know, harmless but heavily marketed and they'll hit the spot and the mark for some. And then there's the products that make me wonder if the the group of executives in the room were running out of ideas. So today's episode is about those products.
Dr. Jena (03:43)
The products across the spectrum, and more specifically, today we're talking about five children's products I wish didn't exist.
Dr. Jena (03:55)
Now every product on today's list exists because it solves a problem, or at least it promises to. parents are busy, tired, trying to do the best with the information they have. So for each product, we're going to ask very simple questions. What problem is it trying to solve? What are the benefits? What are the drawbacks? What does the research say? And if we're making the decision for our own family, what what would I do? Like what because my goal isn't tell what to
Dr. Jena (04:23)
To tell you what to buy, it's not to tell you what to throw away. My goal is to give you the information. And you need to make the most informed decision for your family. So yeah, I still kind of reserve the right to roast some of these products a little bit, but some of them are absolutely wild, and I don't know why they're still on the market, purely from a safety perspective. And then some of them are more just things that kind of grind my gears.
Dr. Jena (04:48)
And so number f I'm gonna go one through five, or technically five through one, because we're gonna start with number five on my list. Number five is baby seats that do the sitting for your baby. Okay, so before I get angry emails, I I don't I want to be clear. I do not hate baby seats. I understand exactly why they exist. I have them. I recommend them a lot. Parents need to shower.
Dr. Jena (05:18)
Parents need to make lunch. Parents occasionally need somewhere safe to put their baby down while they are just remembering that whether they brush their teeth that day. Real benefits. And let's give credit where it's due. The biggest strength of these seats is convenience. And I think that convenience matters, especially as we're in a day and age that parents do not get the amount of help that they used to. So sometimes there's a space in an area.
Dr. Jena (05:47)
For products. The benefit with some of these baby seats that people will say is like if your baby has reflux and can't yet sit up, it can help if your baby wants to sit up on their own. But the the fact is your baby really shouldn't be in a prolonged upright sitting position for a long time. if they cannot handle it themselves. And let's talk about that developmental side and what I mean by that.
Dr. Jena (06:14)
Babies learn to sit by doing the work of sitting. Babies learn to move through failing over and over and over again. We have so much to learn from children in that way. They lean, they wobble, they'll tip over, they'll catch themselves, they'll even they'll fall.
Dr. Jena (06:38)
And through all of that trial and error, they develop balance and postural control. And a supportive seat that does the sitting for the baby takes away that learning and it does the work for them. It doesn't mean your baby will never it doesn't mean your baby will never learn to sit if you use one. It's not what I'm saying. But it does mean they're getting less opportunity to practice the skill independently.
Dr. Jena (07:04)
And the research on motor learning consistently shows that babies learn through active movement and problem solving.
Dr. Jena (07:12)
not through being positioned in a chair doing the sitting for them. So there's a f and let me back up. There's a few types of chairs. There's a few types of baby seats. You're gonna have ones that you will put your baby in and you are basically squeezing them in like you're squeezing them into a corset. They are going to be suctioned into that scene.
Dr. Jena (07:40)
And that seat is sitting them up.
Dr. Jena (07:44)
Those are the ones that I do not like. Now, there are seats that are developmentally beneficial for your baby. So I want to be very intentional about number five. Number five is not baby seats in general. It is baby seats asterisks that do the sitting for your baby. And if you are interested in what baby seat I like.
Dr. Jena (08:12)
I will put it down in the show notes.
Dr. Jena (08:19)
Number four on my list. Now I'm gonna found Number four on my list. Now I am going to sound like a fun sucker for this one. And you know, I'm okay with that. Number four is hoverboards and electric scooters for young children. Honestly, for anyone, but let's hone in on young children. So I have like a genuine question. Why are we giving children speed before they have
Dr. Jena (08:48)
a full frontal lobe and impulse control because kids love these things. I mean, like I get it, they're exciting, they're fun, they feel independent. I'm not joy matters, right? I say that all the time. But emergency room physicians also have opinions and research looking specifically at hoverboard injuries found that fractures were among the most common injuries with wrist, forearm, and the head being frequent injury locations.
Dr. Jena (09:15)
One pediatric emergency department reported a steady stream of hoverboard related injuries with fractures accounting for a large portion of visits. And every year we see thousands of injuries associated with hoverboards and electric scooters, broken wrists, arms, collarbones, I get nervous, concussions, facial injuries. And yeah, kids have always gotten hurt. You know, that's part of being a kid. But historically they have to like pedal first.
Dr. Jena (09:43)
They have to be able to generate the motion. but now we have added motors and false confidence. it's a dangerous combination. Developmentally, look, I think from the sa aside from the safety aspect, I love activities that challenge balance coordination and I really want kids to use their legs.
Dr. Jena (10:06)
The electric scooters are not only a safety risk in my mind, but they are taking away opportunities for kids to use their bodies, right? I want them to use their legs. And I want them like learning balance. I want them getting the exercise. And adding the speed increases the risk of injury substantially, but it also takes away their opportunity to move their body.
Dr. Jena (10:37)
For older kids, you know, I mean, if you want to use these things with supervision and protective gear, it's a family decision. I'm not trying to I'm not trying to be a a total fun sucker, but I mean objectively looking at this, they are a large reason for injuries. Will my children probably get on one one day? Yeah. It doesn't mean that and like this is not meant to be hypocritical. This is meant to be a thing that is like it is a real life thing in our life.
Dr. Jena (11:06)
Their friends are gonna have one, everyone's gonna have one, but I want them to be educated, and I want parents to be educated on the dangers of these. Always wear your helmets. Always teach your kids that when you are going quickly, you're not supposed to dart out into traffic, all of those things. This is something that, from a safety perspective, is high up there on the list for me. But also.
Dr. Jena (11:33)
Let's find invet let's find new fun ways for kids to move their body.
Dr. Jena (11:42)
Number three, and I'm kind of jumping all over the board, but I did kind of put these in order of things that are kind of making me mad recently. So number three, head reshaping pillows. So this is more targeted at babies, infants. And and you know what? This one makes me sad because I completely understand why parents buy them. You notice the flat spot, you'll Google it, Google will, you know, cache your Google, and then you're getting ads on Instagram, and suddenly.
Dr. Jena (12:10)
You're buying all these memory foam pillows because you you've been marketed and promised that these are the way to fix your baby's head. That's exactly what these companies are counting on. And any company that is going to make a promise that is not evidence-based to sell a product and is also preying on the anxieties of new parents. That ain't it.
Dr. Jena (12:39)
So let's slow down. Flat spots are common, very common. I treat them in clinic. And especially with the back to sleep campaign, which we mentioned in the last episode, reducing the risk of SIDS. I mean, it does increase positional plagiocephaly, brachycephaly, essentially fancy words for for flathead. And the good news is this this could be corrected with or without a helmet.
Dr. Jena (13:21)
And the good news is that this can be corrected with or without a helmet and we can correct flat head without a helmet prior to a baby rolling through some strategic repositioning. I am going Kimber, stop. Kimber, stop.
Dr. Jena (13:51)
I am gonna have someone on the podcast here soon to go more in depth about that. But
Dr. Jena (14:32)
I am gonna have someone on the podcast to go more in depth about that here soon, but
Dr. Jena (14:52)
Laying on the back and
Dr. Jena (14:56)
But there's a few ways that we can correct flathead, and it's not through a pillow, not specialty pillows. It's through movement, it's through addressing the underlying tension causes of tortois, plagiocephaly, the the pressure on one area of the skull.
Dr. Jena (15:13)
And that happens through strategic therapy.
Dr. Jena (15:21)
These pillows do limit neck mobility. So most of the time, movement and getting babies out of these stuck positions that are causing the flat head is the number one thing that you need to do. Unfortunately, these pillows do not allow for neck movement.
Dr. Jena (15:37)
The number one thing that I want you to take away from this one though is that they are not safe sleep. In 2022, in 2022, the FDA issued a safety communication specifically warning parents not to use infant head shaping pillows because the products create an unsafe sleep environment and they may contribute to suffocation and death.
Dr. Jena (16:00)
So the FDA also noted there is no established evidence that these pillows actually effectively prevent or treat positional plagiocephaly, which most parents will call flathead, but you want to know what research does show as the first-line treatment for positional plagiocephaly, consistently shown as pediatric therapy.
Dr. Jena (16:31)
Number two on my list. This one should come as no surprise to people who have followed me for a while: Doorway jumpers.
Dr. Jena (16:39)
I know, I know, I know. People love these, babies love these. Actually, they bounce, they squeal. there in look, they can be fun. I don't deny that. The question is whether isn't whether the question isn't whether babies enjoy them, it's whether that fun is safe. And there's a long history of these causing injuries. These types of doorway jumpers do end up putting the hips in an undesirable position.
Dr. Jena (17:09)
and adding the weight and the force of the bouncing to them before they're even ready. But then on top of that, they are usually not secured very well. There's reports of children falling out of them, being tipped upside down by a sibling in them, the strap breaking, it falling from the doorway. There are so many safety hazards with it.
Dr. Jena (17:32)
And the argument usually goes that the doorway jumpers are strengthening the baby's legs, but it's not really that simple. So babies learn through varied experiences rolling, reaching, pivoting, crawling, pulling to stand, cruising, problem solving, and a jumper will give them a very specific movement pattern. Jumping.
Dr. Jena (17:58)
And I need you to stick with me here because when it comes to jumping, that is a developmental milestone that is typically mastered in the second to third, like two or in three. And jumping is usually a milestone that is mastered between two and three years old.
Dr. Jena (18:22)
When the body is able to jump, it will jump. And when it is ready to jump, it will jump. Putting a baby that is not developmentally supposed to be jumping yet in a device that does jumping is not a natural progression of development.
Dr. Jena (18:45)
And for some babies, that movement pattern includes a lot of pushing through the toes. I have seen these lead to more of a toe-walking posturing for children. And before someone writes a strongly worded email, using a jumper occasionally doesn't doom your child. It's not all also not how development works, but I really don't think they're necessary. And if I had one, I wouldn't use it. And I don't think they're providing
Dr. Jena (19:14)
the developmental advantages they're often marketed as providing and the safety issues on top of that. My take is if they disappeared tomorrow, I wouldn't miss them. And in many countries they have disappeared. So they are banned in certain areas and you know what? If they go away, babies would find something else fun. They're surprisingly innovative and creative little humans.
Dr. Jena (19:43)
My number one spot is taken by something that I am shocked continues to be on the market. Sit-in Baby Walkers. It's the undisputed champion, the goat, the product I will personally launch into the sun. Let's start with an argument in their favor.
Dr. Jena (20:03)
parents think they're helping babies to walk. If your baby wants to get up and moving, you know, they're they're gonna help they're gonna help them get around. And that makes sense, right? The baby's upright, moving. Looks like they're practicing walking, except they're not. walking develops through a progression. Standing, cruising, weight shifting, testing their balance, falling, trying again.
Dr. Jena (20:33)
A walker, a sit-in walker, not a push-walker, a sit-in walker, because I do like a push-walker. A sit-in walker changes that process. So instead of learning how to control their body and weight shift and not and fall down, babies often learn how to move through the equipment and moving the equipment. And that's before we even get to safety.
Dr. Jena (21:01)
There are a bunch of things that have been contributed to sit in baby walkers. There's falls, stairs, burns, reaching hazards, tons of emergency room visits. A study published in pediatric, a study published found more than 230,000 emergency department visits in the United States over a 25-year period related to baby walk. And most were caused by falls downstairs.
Dr. Jena (21:29)
What's expec what's especially concerning is that many of these injuries happened even with safety gates present.
Dr. Jena (23:59)
There's a reason these devices have been headl There's a reason these devices have been heavily criticized by pediatric organizations and banned in some countries. So my take is I've never met a baby who needed more speed.
Dr. Jena (24:14)
Not once. I've met plenty who needed more opportunities to move on the floor, more opportunities to explore how their body moves, how their body falls, how they pick themselves up and try again. Babies teach themselves walking, devices don't. And actually baby devices usually don't teach your baby how to walk.
Dr. Jena (24:42)
Babies teach themselves how to walk with occasionally some outside help from therapists.
Dr. Jena (24:53)
Okay, that was a lot. And one thing I never want parents to take away from my podcast is fear. So I don't want you to be fearful about these things. telling I don't want you to be fearful about these things. Telling you the facts is giving you the information. There are informed decisions that might lead you down a path that is a different choice than what I would do. Whatever you do for your family is what's best for you.
Dr. Jena (25:24)
Now, sometimes products exist because they're useful, sometimes they exist because they're fun, and sometimes they exist because, you know.
Dr. Jena (25:37)
Sometimes products exist because they're useful, sometimes they progress sometimes products exist because they're useful, and sometimes they exist because they're fun. So in the interest of balance, let's talk about a few products I fully support despite having absolutely no developmental value whatsoever. Baby wigs. Do babies need wigs? Absolutely not. But if your bald little baby wants a Karen Bob or a tiny man bun.
Dr. Jena (26:07)
Who am I to stand in the way?
Dr. Jena (26:12)
Hooded towels with ears, freshly bathed babies with tiny berry, hooded, hooded towels with ears.
Dr. Jena (26:23)
No developmental benefit, they're just cute. I don't care, joy matters. I like
Dr. Jena (26:32)
Animal butt pants, like I can't explain this scientifically. Why does a duck face on a diaper butt improve my mood? And why does like a little baby dinosaur make a on the butt make a baby outfit 30% cuter? Research has yet to answer these questions and you know, whatever, frankly, research has bigger problems to solve. So
Dr. Jena (26:56)
I cannot explain this scientifically, I don't think I need to. I think we all understand it on a total level.
Dr. Jena (27:36)
If you're looking for the best stress-free way to help your baby's development, Driving Development Daily is where I put together a daily activity for your baby each day of the first year of their life. It's designed to take the stress away, not add to it, and help with that variety in positions.
Dr. Jena (28:00)
If you're looking for the best stress if you're looking for the best stress free way for you t
Dr. Jena (28:09)
If you're looking for the best stress-free way to help your baby's development, Driving Development Daily is where I put together a daily activity for your baby each day of the first year of their life. It's designed to take the stress away, not add to it. Adds variety and positions with the daily activities to your baby's developmental program that they are.
Dr. Jena (28:27)
If you're looking for the best stress-free way to help your baby's development, Driving Development Daily is where I put together a daily activity for your baby's development each day of the first year of their life. It's designed to take the stress away, not add to it, help with variety in their positions from day to day, and there is a whole community there where you can ask a question. Got a product you're not sure about? Want to clarify something on the podcast? Adding
Dr. Jena (28:56)
Add your question to the community and I will personally answer. Use code podcast for 10% off your purchase. Otherwise you can try out the program for just $7 a week.
Dr. Jena (29:11)
We're always gonna end on an unqualified opinion of the week, so this is something that I I gosh, I I hesitate to bring up, but I think we're mostly going to be in agreement about it. Can we talk about birthday party goodie bags? Look, I've done it. Actually every party I've done it. And I just I don't know, why am I sending ten dollars worth of junk home with thirty children? Thirty is, you know, fifteen, I don't know.
Dr. Jena (29:38)
Tiny whistle, sticky hand. We have a sticky hand stuck to our ceiling right now. Temporary tattoos that are somehow permanent. you know, plastic spider. And somehow like all of it ends up in my car or I find it like in a cabinet. It's not a gift. It's like a delayed cleaning project. And if it makes noise, it's causing a fight somewhere. So, I like the idea of giving out books. Can we start birthday party goodie books?
Dr. Jena (30:09)
That's my unqualified opinion.
Dr. Jena (30:16)
Thank you for listening to the Driving Development Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with a parent, therapist, teacher, or caregiver who might appreciate it. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and follow as it helps get the world out about driving development. And remember, child development isn't about finding the perfect answer. It's about finding the right answer for your family. I'll see you next week.
Dr. Jena (30:40)
Thank you for listening to the Driving Development Podcast. If you enjoyed today's episode, share it with a parent, therapist, teacher, or a caregiver who might appreciate it. Don't forget to rate and review the podcast and follow as it helps get the word out about driving development. And remember, child development isn't about finding the perfect answer. It's about finding the right answer for your family. I'll see you next week.
