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This infant toy is linked to thousands of emergency room visits each year.
If you let your toddler walk around the house with a walker, stop immediately and throw it.
According to a new study published in the journal Pediatrics, devices have resulted in hundreds of thousands of injuries to infants, mostly due to falling stairs and posing significant risk without any real benefit.
The authors are in favor of a complete ban on baby walkers, those plastic wheeled devices that allow babies – too young to be independent and mobile – to move on their own. This precedent of a ban had already been established by Canada in 2004.
"They are dangerous because they allow very young children to move well before they are able to handle this type of mobility," said Gary A. Smith, director of the Nationwide Injury Research and Policy Center. Children's Hospital Columbus, Ohio. co-author of the research.
"Kids in a trotter can move on the ground up to four feet per second," Smith said. "At this age, they have no sense of danger. They are curious, but they do not recognize the danger.
What did the study find
Researchers examined national injury data from 1990 to 2014 and found that baby walkers allowed 230,676 emergency visits for children under 15 months of age. Ninety percent of the injuries were to the head and neck and almost 40% of patients admitted to the hospital had a broken skull.
Experts have pointed out that the appearance of safety that walkers bring is misleading: they leave the head and torso of a child exposed, which, as the data show, is the place the more likely for a serious injury.
The most common cause of injury was falling on stairs, but the authors warn that devices can expose infants to all kinds of dangerous situations, including falling into pools or giving them access to items like household cleaners or hot liquids.
Most of the injured children were extremely young.
"The majority of injuries involved children aged about 8 months. There is no reason for an 8 month old child to walk; they have barely crawled at this age, "said Dr. Nina L. Shapiro, Director of Pediatric Otolaryngology at David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA and author of" Hype: A Physician's Guide to medical myths "
Experts say that baby walkers also do not provide functional benefits to the development of babies. Some parents or caregivers mistakenly believe placing pre-ambulatory infants in walkers will help them learn to walk earlier – but this has not been verified by any factual evidence.
According to Smith, the muscle patterns that babies use to develop their ability to walk are different from the patterns used in children.
From a parent
But if parents think they can rest while their child is safe in a walker, experts warn that this is not the case.
Safer options
Fortunately, fixed-activity centers, marketed in the United States since 1994, can also entertain children without giving them mobility.
Infant wipe injuries have declined significantly since 1990, in part because of the introduction of fixed activity centers, but also because of increased public awareness of device hazards and improved safety standards.
"We really do not want to relax our efforts to eliminate this risk simply because we have seen a decrease [since] We know that these injuries can be very serious and even life threatening, "Smith said.
Smith and Shapiro both support the ban on the devices.
If you're worried about walking and developing strength, Smith says there's nothing wrong with "a good old time belly" – put a baby on your stomach and let him learn to move alone.
"For the history of our species, it is the way we have developed. We do it naturally, "said Smith.
The bottom line
A new study reveals that baby walkers have caused hundreds of thousands of injuries in infants and that pediatricians are demanding a total ban.
Injuries have declined in recent years due to fixed activity centers, but experts say thousands of children are injured each year in walkers.
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