New mums are spending an incredible FOUR hours looking for advice online every day.
Whenever baby naps, mum is logging onto the internet to get find out more about feeding, sleeping, development, health and shopping.
And more often then not, they are consulting other mum’s for advice on their baby’s well being.
The poll revealed 43 minutes a day are spent talking to like-minded people in forums and chatrooms. In fact, 36 per cent of those polled rate other mum’s advice more highly than recommendations from health visitors and midwives. And 39 per cent would prefer to conduct their own research online than asking their own mum for guidance.
A further 42 minutes are spend trawling the web for sites which can give advice on baby’s development – 49 per cent of mums admit they have gone online just to check their own baby’s behaviour and progress is “normal”.
Another 39 minutes are spent visiting health websites to get medical advice about teething, milk spots, rashes, colic, reflux and other common childhood complaints.
More than half of mums always look up their child’s medical symptoms online before visiting the doctor or health visitor, and 24 per cent have even printed off information from the internet to present to the doctor.
Approximately 51 minutes of the day is spent looking at parenting websites, another 42 minutes are spent shopping, whilst 41 minutes are spent reading reviews for the best baby equipment and home wares.
The poll also revealed that women are turning to the internet during their bid to conceive – 24 per cent claimed to start using the internet more when they were trying to get pregnant. And 26 per cent used the internet to research ways of getting pregnant.
A fifth of women chatted in forums to other people in the same position as them when trying to conceive, and an astonishing 33 per cent told internet friends they were pregnant BEFORE telling their partner.
BREAKDOWN OF TIME ONLINE
Parenting websites 51 minutes
Forums and chatrooms 43 minutes
Advice on development 42 minutes
Medical advice 39 minutes
Shopping 42 minutes
Reviews 41 minutes
Total 258 minutes or 4 hours and 18 mins
March 2009 | 
The Very Hungry Caterpillar
