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Behaviour/development

Talk to others about child development and behaviour stages here. You can find more information on our development calendar.

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Original poster

Why do health visitors say baby walkers are bad and to avoid them?

43 replies

Reenypip · 12/12/2011 01:23

Why do health visitors say baby walkers are bad and to avoid them?
Is it because of their development and causes them not to walk properly and future problems?

All my friends have them. I haven't bought one for reason being advice from my health visitor not too.

OP posts:

Are your children’s vaccines up to date?

Set a reminder

hazeyjane · 12/12/2011 22:15

Lijkk, one person has said they can delay walking, and I don't think that is necessarily the case.

I think the overall point is that they don't particularly help with development (ie skipping the crawling stage, don't encourage walking any earlier) and they can have a negative effect on development (hip alignment, toe walking - Madwoman, I'm surprised about your dd's physio, ds's was quite specific about why she thought they were bad to use, especially wrt ds's muscle problems). And if used incorrectly can be dangerous - this includes them being used unsupervised.

Flisspaps · 12/12/2011 22:26

Mumtomoley - when DD was crawling I just let her get on with it. Anything harmful was moved out of reach and she followed me about happily. A walker would have been a PITA - banging into doorways or speeding along the tiled hall...

lljkk · 13/12/2011 12:33

I know Hazyjane, I was trying to be a little ironic!!!
Because mine were manic crawlers, early walkers and don't have skeletal problems. In spite of me using walker whenever I wanted, the dire warnings, and all that.
3 of mine walked before their legs were long enough to move the walker around, anyway.

ChunkyMonkeyMother · 13/12/2011 12:44

I didn't buy one to begin with due to fears about now legs and falling downstairs - when ds got to about 9 or 10 months he was too big to hold his own weight (11lb13oz born) and he got very angsty, got myself a walker for less than £4 on eBay - he flipping loved it! He spent about an hour a day in it spread over 20 minutes at a time, he could only stay in the living room as we had a baby gate on the door and everything had already been baby proofed - he started walking alone very quickly after - we used it in the garden then at my parents to avoid the dog & cats, he was always closely supervised and obviously those without any sense need not apply!

hazeyjane · 13/12/2011 13:24

Sorry, lljkk, have had a bit of an irony bypass!

hildathebuilder · 13/12/2011 13:33

My Ds physio was also very specific, they can encourage widening the hips, and misalign them, also encourage toe walking rather than flat footed walking, which in turn can effect muscle development and growth, and finally that weight bearing helps to strngthen the joints etc and in turn core stability.

hazeyjane · 13/12/2011 13:36

that is exactly what ds's physion said, hilda (thankyou!) maybe it was more pertinent for ds, because his core strength isn't great anyway, his hips are a bit wonky and his feet are like clenched up balls, so it is important that he pushes down on them.

miamamaClaus09 · 13/12/2011 14:36

Supervised I don't see a problem with them in moderation, it is all personal preference. My DD had one and was still walking properly before 12 months.

Dnomaid · 13/12/2011 14:43

One other issue with walkers / activity centres is that they can cause problems with the development of depth perception - needed for walking. But as said be previous posters limited use is fine - my girl twin loves her activity centre as she just wants to be standing all the time and I can't always hold her as have to deal with her brother. But we only use it for short periods at a time.

QueeferSantaland · 13/12/2011 14:44

Because they are chavvy.

HTH

madwomanintheattic · 13/12/2011 15:56

should probably add that dd2 was much older than your average baby walker user. and already had an nhs standing frame and walker for all of the above reasons. so our discussion (between me and the physio) was largely a philosophical one based on the difference between, say, a rifton pacer with a harness, or a pony gait trainer (with the obv diff for the pony for kids that are prone to scissoring) and a bog standard mothercare (apart from the size and the hundreds of pounds difference in cost)... (yy bigger kids need a heavier walker etc etc, but having used a few of the above, there is feck all difference in design really

as long as you make sure the feet are flat on the floor and the 'support' isn't suspending the child...

at the standard 'baby walker' age she was wedged in a tumbleform

just mostly playing devil's advocate lol, in the same way i did the physio. i have no particularly strong feeling on baby walkers either way, just on people telling me what i should do, without being able to explain why.

madwomanintheattic · 13/12/2011 16:06

the standing frame was ok, but provided too much support for the twisting and reaching stuff. it was great for the fine motor and playing at a table (and it was used a lot at nursery. long sitting with her gaiters as well, but she was prone to arch and throw herself over backwards, so it was a little of everything to get as much done as possible.

i've always worked on the theory that different positions, different views of the world, different experiences are all extremely valuable in building new pathways. so i get a bit stroppy when people tell me i can't do something.

they did tell me she wouldn't walk. i don't think i've harmed her irrevocably given where she is now. we all do what we think is right for our kids. and not necessarily what other people tell us to do!

QueeferSantaland · 13/12/2011 21:38

Sorry. My post above was unhelpful & uncalled-for.

I've been in a sour mood all day & out of it on lemsip.

Appologies.

madwomanintheattic · 13/12/2011 21:43

mmmm. lemsip. there's an idea.

night nurse is way better though. i used to have to take it and then make my way to bed immediately. if i stopped anywhere en route i would lapse into unconsciousness.

all4aldo · 03/11/2017 12:08

First, it is important to know that there is a difference between a baby push walker and baby walker.
A push cart for babies is OK provided the baby can already stand up but baby walkers are not safe.

HerbsAndStewedRabbit · 04/11/2017 10:31

Because some people would just shove the baby in them for hours at a time.
Same as when they say don't drink in pregnancy, if they said a small amount is ok some people would take that to mean it's ok to have a drink every night.
I think lots of the advice that seems a bit ott is because they have to think about the people who would abuse the rules if they were more lenient.
Ditto not putting baby in car seat for more than 20 minutes at a time. Some poor babies would barely leave the car seat if the parents were just left to it.

tiffy343 · 20/05/2020 03:43

This reply has been deleted

Message deleted by MNHQ. Here's a link to our Talk Guidelines.

sauvignonblancplz · 20/05/2020 07:56

I got a cheap one in a charity shop , handy for the garden etc.
We never used it loads but like everything common sense should prevail.

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