Baby Walkers and Help My Baby

Babies learn to walk in part by watching and understanding how their feet and legs move. If a walker has a tray, they can’t see what’s happening with their lower body and don’t get the information they need about their motor development.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends against using walkers not only because they can discourage your child from learning to walk on his own, but also because they can be dangerous. Thousands of babies end up in emergency rooms and doctor’s offices from falling down stairs or bumping into furniture while in a walker. Walkers can give parents a false impression that their babies are truly mobile and can control their actions. Some parents even leave their babies alone to navigate their way around the home in a walker.

Some parents believe that a best baby walker is a great time saver device as it lets them go about their own business while their child is pre-occupied in the “mobile playpen”. However, such a belief is a recipe for disaster. If a kid is too young to be able to walk on his own, he is surely too young to be left alone in a baby walker. And hospital statistics bear that out as one of the most common injuries to babies brought in to U.S. emergency rooms are injuries related to the use of a baby walker. In most cases, the injury is directly caused by the baby-walker tipping over near stairs or an uneven floor area and injuring himself in the process.

Parents who are determined to use a baby walker for their child should take certain precautions. The first is to never leave their child unattended. The second is to not use the device on a surface that is uneven and that may cause the walker to tip over. Never, never, never allow your child to be nearing a stairway while in his walker this is where most injuries occur. Ensure that the walker is well constructed. And lastly, make sure that whatever walker you buy has the latest built-in device safety features recommended by the government.

These devices are controversial and there are people on both sides of the issue. Some believe that baby walkers are very useful in enabling the child to move around and explore on his own before he or she has developed motor skills and coordination. Others believe, however, that the use of a baby walker inhibits the development of those very same motor skills. Still others believe that because of their new found mobility, children are able to get into troubles that they may otherwise have avoided. Troubles such have getting a-hold of potentially harmful utensils on table tops that he would ordinarily not be able to reach.

Some parents believe that a baby walker is a great time saver device as it let’s them go about their own business while their child is pre-occupied in the “mobile playpen”. However, such a belief is a recipe for disaster. If a kid is too young to be able to walk on his own, he is surely too young to be left alone in a baby walker. And hospital statistic bear that out as one of the most common injuries to babies brought in to U.S. emergency rooms are injuries related to the use of a baby walker. In most cases the injury is directly caused by the baby-walker tipping over near stairs or an uneven floor area and injuring himself in the process.