We discussed about ‘crawling’ in my previous post and like every anxious parent we always await our child’s next milestone “their first step.” It is super exciting to watch your little one learn to walk. Your baby’s muscle tone and strength have direct impact on his ability to walk, especially his or her gross motor development. Since many parents want their kid to learn from the best, they tend to buy baby walkers before the 12th month itself. But do remember that the developmental pace for every baby differs a lot and thus some might start walking after 12 months. According to a research, about 50-77% of parents said they use a baby walker in the 12th month itself. But experts don’t find it to be a decent idea!
Are baby Walkers safe?
In fact, Baby walkers are not safe and don’t help much for a baby to learn to walk. Instead, walkers can impede or delay your baby from achieving their important milestones. The more time they tend to spend in the walker, the more delay they experience new things. Before heading to what are the alternatives of baby walkers let’s understand the potential dangers –
Dangers of baby walkers
- Babies lose their balance near steps or stairs: This is a major risk with baby walkers if you have stairs in the house. Kids with walkers can often walks towards the edge of stairs and can fall.
- Babies can Stumble into something sharp or hard objects.
- Baby walkers can delay physical development of baby as they use their leg muscles differently than they usually do. They start using toes and start tipping their legs during walking.
- Baby on walker can grab unnecessary and dangerous objects like electrical cords or cupboards. They can have access to upper shelves from where they may pull down large items that can fall on their heads.
- Baby on walker starts moving in a rush around dangerous spots like fireplaces, ovens, heaters or the pool which can cause serious accidents.
- Baby walker delay their balancing skills. Babies who stay in a walker spend less time on floor activities such as crawling which is important to develop weight bearing through both the pelvis and shoulders.
Few tips to help your baby to walk:
Instead of investing on baby walkers start encouraging them to walk.
Always Start low: Place some low furniture like your coffee table, couch, or anything close together and let your baby walk short distances.
You can play ‘Come to Me’: Kneel or stand like about one foot in front of your little one and tell your baby to come to you. This will motivate your little one to take a step towards you.
Let them walk barefoot: Shoes often hinder your baby walking skills. Allowing your child to walk barefoot indoors will improve coordination and balance.
What Are The Alternatives of baby walkers:
I will suggest is to go for Play yards or playpens and stationary activity centres. They all are safer and even boosts the baby’s physical development without any major risks. There is no such right time for you to buy these activity centres but I would suggest you to buy the same after your toddler becomes 8 months old.
Lastly, as a parent, you have to understand that there is no safe age to use baby walkers for your baby. They will learn to stand and walk, when the little one is ready for the same. Rushing the process will not make it any faster or better, instead, it can have several after effects.
This year, I’m participating in #BlogchatterA2Z powered by theblogchatter.com
I am writing 26 post in this series .Do check my earlier post
I actually had not considered this. In my mind, it used to always be the inverse – that this makes it safer for the baby.
Very true. Have been refraining new parents from buying them and never used for my kids. You rightly pointed out all the dangers and drwabacks
Deepika Sharma
I dunno about this..my kids was fine in the walker 35 years ago but now suddenly everyone is against them. My son didn’t let me buy one for my grandsons. Maybe I am outdated
Very true. Even I heard these issues with the walkers. Luckily, my kid used it only 2-3 months that too just for 1-2 hours a day. So I didn’t encounter any problems.
I am not a parent but this post is quite detailed and I did not ever think that baby walkers can have such dangers. I loved the fact that you suggested about letting them walk on barefoot.
When my kids were small, I always was confused to have walkers or not, and maybe my motherly instinct told me not to use them. No offense but I never found them safe, I preferred walking my kids holding my fingers slowly, one step at a time. Glad after so many years when I read this post of yours I feel positive for not using them in the first place. Thanks for sharing dangers, tips, and alternatives too.
I’m not a parent but this article caught my attention. As kids we all grew up with walkers with little knowledge of the reality. Weird!
This is something new to me as both my kuds used baby walker. Probably now things have changed. Thanks for the information.. Would love to know more on this.
yes I knew about it and that s why I had not used baby walkers with my both girls. thanks a lot dear for sharing alternate options, will be so useful for new parents.
Baby walker experience for me was like “Danger, Danger” as my kid used to rush to near furniture to grab drawers, pull things, etc. and it was a no, no for us.
It was amazing watching him learning to stand and walk on his own.
Thank you for this post especially the dangers.
I didn’t use any baby walker for my little one. In fact, I used to help her out and trying to make her walk. I thank you for making me aware of the facts.
I’ve always adviced my peers against buying this. Good that you covered the pointer in detail
A completely new and quite convincing perspective on baby walkers. Will be helpful for many new parents.Thanks for sharing this.
Being a parent, I know that the walkers can be quite dangerous. My son used to turn his walker upside down and hurt himself.
Strongly Agree with each pointer! I experienced the side effects of using a walker when my firstborn was around 10 months. Kids don’t learn to balance by the walker; when they come out of the walker, they run and go senselessly and end hurting themselves. Also, I heard that it misshapes the feet; I don’t know how much this is true. I refrain from using the walker for my second one.
I used baby walker for my daughter after she started walking as she would fall a lot and the walker ended up being a safety net. These are important points to consider.
So true this happened with my elder daughter. she happen to bump into the sharp table and almost lost to stairs.