Container Culture: an Educational Program To Reduce the Overuse

The increased pace of society, improved safety, mobility and the need for parent efficiency have created a vast market of infant products to meet these demands: car seats that clip in and out of everything from the car to the grocery cart, jumpers, walkers, exersaucers, swings, bouncers and bumbos. These infant equipment products are helpful and can be beneficial if used effectively, however, the problem synthesized from the literature and clinical observation is that these containers designed to support safety and mobility are being overused causing a decrease in tummy time and human interaction which is leading to delays in healthy infant motor development. This project developed an educational program to inform at- risk parents in the community of the potentially negative effects of consistent infant equipment use, its effect on development and offer solutions for promoting appropriate developmental play skills to use in place of pacifying through container play. Infant containers were defined as car seats, jumpers, walkers, exersaucers, swings bouncers and bumpo seats. The outcomes of the program were measured through pre/post program surveys, parent time study of container use completed in their home setting; monitoring types of equipment used, time of day used and amount of time used