The position of the American Academy of Pediatrics is clear though. In their fact sheet ‘Baby Walkers are Dangerous!’ they advise that you should ‘throw away your baby walker’ based on the fact that:
* Baby walkers send more than 14,000 children to the hospital every year, and
* 34 children have died since 1973 because of baby walkers.
The AAP has gone so far as to call for ‘a ban on the manufacture and sale of baby walkers with wheels ‘
Mobile baby walkers are still popular though.
Older infants seem to enjoy them, as they often quickly get bored in stationary walkers, even the newer ones with all of the bells and whistles.
Will they help your infant learn to walk sooner?
No. It is generally believed that infant walkers don’t help your kids learn to walk sooner than if they didn’t use a walker. In fact, one study, Effects of baby walkers on motor and mental development in human infants, concluded that ‘walker-experienced infants sat, crawled, and walked later than no-walker controls, and they scored lower on Bayley scales of mental and motor development.’
Another study, Infant walkers: developmental tool or inherent danger, found that ‘the use of the infant walker did not influence the onset of independent walking.’
So while it is maybe not clear on whether or not using a mobile infant walker will delay the time that your child learns to walk, there have been no studies showing that it will help you child walk sooner than if you didn’t use one.
Are infant walkers safe?
As the statistics from the AAP show, many infants are injured when they use a mobile infant walker.
Injuries include:
* falls, especially down stairs
* pinch injuries to fingers and toes
* burns
* poisonings
* drowning
Most of these injuries aren’t because the walker itself is dangerous, but only that it makes your child more mobile, which can cause injuries if your house isn’t well childproofed. Afterall, your infant isn’t going to get burned or poisoned by the walker. Instead, using a walker, he can get to and knock over a hot cup of coffee, pull something off of the stove, get too close to a fireplace or grab something poisonous out of a cabinet.
