According to a child health expert, mothers who carry their babies facing forwards are cruel and selfish.

Cathrine Fowler, a professor of child and family health nursing, claimed youngsters are frightened if they are carried in a sling or pushed in a pram looking away from their parents.

"Imagine if you were strapped to someone?s chest with your legs and arms flailing, heading with no control into a busy shopping centere ? it would be terrifying," said Professor Fowler.

"Outward-facing baby carriers and strollers give babies a bombardment of stimulus, creating a very stressful situation."

Professor Fowler?s comments applied not only to newborns but also children up to a year in age.

But they have stirred up controversy, with critics insisting babies actually get bored if they face their mother all the time.

The comments from Professor Fowler, who works at Sydney?s University of Technology, are backed by a 2008 study which found that babies suffer if they cannot see their parents while in a buggy.

In the research by the University of Dundee, academics found that baby buggies which face forwards may stunt children?s development and turn them into anxious adults.

The study said children found it difficult to get their parents? attention and were spoken to rarely.

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