How would you feel about parenting tips being printed on nappies so that when you are changing a baby, you would be able to read printed messages, advice and tips?
A new proposal by The Behavioural Insights Team in the UK has suggested doing such a thing.
The idea of using messages written on nappies, to aid awareness of how young children’s development can be greatly improved by parents speaking to them, was one of “a handful of next generation interventions” considered by the head of the Behavioural Insights Team.
Studies have shown that talking frequently to babies can greatly improve their language and vocabulary skills and scientists at Harvard recommend that babies should be exposed to at least 21,000 words a day.
The Behavioural Insights Team’s theories of “nudging” people to adopt better life choices, rather than using the blunt force of legislation, have proved so successful that the unit was partly sold off by the UK Government as a profit-making venture earlier this year.
Dr David Halpern is the CEO of the unit and he admitted the nappy plan was “the most left-field proposal” of family ideas discussed by the group. But he said that changing a nappy is the perfect time to talk to a baby, however many parents stay silent as they are concentrating on the changing of the nappy.
The group go on to say that “adding a note on the front of the nappy would encourage parents to look up and talk to baby”.
Parenting experts however are divided on the benefits of the idea. Dr Ben Laskey, director and consultant psychologist at The Psychology Partnership healthcare group, called it a ?very creative approach?.
?The more ways of getting positive messages out to parents, the better,? he said.
Others have said that the idea was invasive, arguing that it was trying to solve a problem that doesn’t exist.
What do you think? Would you like to see parenting tips and advice printed on nappies? Or, do you think that there is a better way to give helpful parenting tips and encourage talking to babies?
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