Question: Are baby walkers
safe for my baby?
Answer: There is an
extremely high risk of injury with the use of baby walkers with young children.
The amount of evidence indicating this is accumulating. In 1999, in the United
States 8,800 children under the age of 15 months were treated in emergency
rooms from baby walker injuries. The most common cause of injuries resulted
from falls downs stairs, subsequently injuring the head.
The
scary part of these statistics is that the majority of these injuries occurred
while a caretaker was in the room with the child in the walker. The committee
on Injury and Poison Prevention of the American Academy of Pediatrics gave
other reasons to ban baby walkers. Walkers do not help an infant to learn how
to walk, and can delay normal motor and mental development.
From my perspective of treating children for 22 years, baby
walkers are dangerous to appropriate pelvic development by putting weight
bearing on structures not ready to bear weight. They also prevent proper cross
crawl gait function, which allows the brain body co-ordination to develop. When
a baby lifts its opposing arm and leg up alternating left then right it
stimulates the brain to prepare for proper walking. Walkers bypass this
important part of the instinctual education to the child and may disrupt brain
development as well as coordination.
Let nature take its course. Please don’t use walkers as
temporary babysitters. You can love and enjoy your child more without walkers.
Quote of the
week: “Anything in life that we don’t accept will simply make
trouble for us until we make peace with it.” - Shakti Gawain