Tundraco's Daily Living Guide to Raising Kids The Dangers of Using a Baby Walker

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The Dangers of Using a Baby Walker
By Rochelle Caviness

Most parents love baby walkers. When the baby is in the walker it is safe, it is having fun, and most parents think that the walker is helping the baby learn to walk. All evidence points to these being false assumptions!

Is a baby walker right for your baby? Here is a list of pros and cons to help you make an informed decision.

Pros

Many people believe that walkers are developmentally beneficial for babies. These claims have yet to be verified.

• Walkers are thought to help a baby learn to walk by practicing walking 'motions' and strengthening the leg muscles.
• Many parents seem to think that their babies seem happier in a walker.
• Many feel that a baby in a walker is safer – as you will see below, this is a fallacy.

Cons:

Accidents

According to the United States Consumer Products Safety Commission more babies between the ages of 5-15 months are injured due to walkers than from any other nursery product. Of those injured, more than 25,000 babies a year are treated in emergency rooms for injuries sustained while using a baby walker. These injuries result in an average of one death a year.

Why such a high accident rates? The number one reason is stairs. The baby's, scooting around in the walkers, tumbles down stairs and sustain bone fractures and head injuries.

• Injuries sustained when falling down stairs are not directly attributed to the walker themselves, rather to the lack of preventive measures. Walkers aside, all stairwells should be cordoned off with a gate so that a baby does not accidentally fall down them – whether they are crawling or in a walker. However, even with the strongest gate, it is only useful if properly fastened. Almost a quarter of the accidents reported which involved an infant falling down a flight of stairs while in a walker involved stairs in which a gate was present – but wasn't closed!

Although the walkers are supposedly designed to prevent tipping, they can be tipped. This can occur from the baby rocking violently back and forth or merely from rolling on an uneven surface. Most tipping accidents result in head injuries.

Walkers provide babies with a greater degree of mobility than just crawling. Walkers also give them added speed. Parents may assume that because the baby is in a walker it cannot get into trouble – wrong!

• Walkers provide babies with the ability to move out of sight quicker.
• The increased speed that a baby can achieve in a walker increase the chance of injury if it runs into something.
• In a walker, a baby can reach items that are up higher than when crawling – including table clothes and power cords. This can result in them pulling hot food items or heavy items onto themselves.
• They can easily bump into tables, knocking items off and often onto themselves – including medicines.
• Babies have drowned when they 'walked' into pools or tipped over into toilets, bathtubs, and buckets.

Although not conclusive, there is a growing body of evidence that using a walker can slow the development of a child. Crawling is an essential aspect of their development, both physically and mentally. By depriving them of these motor stimuli there is evidence that their development is retarded.

A large number of child advocacy and safety organizations have taken a stand against mobile baby walkers. They feel that the risks associated with them are not worth any benefit they might have.

• American Academy of Pediatrics

  In May of 1995, the American Academy of Pediatrics issued a policy statement in which they recommend a ban on the use of infant and baby walkers.

• The National Association of Children's Hospitals and Related Institutions

  In 1993, the NACHRI issued their own call for a ban on baby walkers.

Many of the hazards associated with traditional walkers are because they give the baby mobility.

• Stationary walkers are tables with a rotating seat in the middle that allows the baby to bounce up and down and run in place.

• There have been accidents associated with stationary walkers, but because they are new, official accident statistics have not yet been compiled.

Your baby's safety is in your hands – make your choices wisely. . .

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