push-along walker decision

[ginger075]

ds willbe 10 mnths old at Christmas.I am thinking of a baby walker as a present but cannot decide between wooden push-along walker with bricks (olde worlde and quiet!!!!-Im hoping) or singing,dancing Vtech fisrst steps walker that also lights up (and needs batteries). I would prefer him to have the silent one but this would be for my sake not his. Has anyone experinced both types and how would I find out which would be more suitable for baby developmentally? (First post -sorry if too long).

We had the traditional one with bricks. The bricks still get used even though they are now 4 and 7 and the trolley was until recently when we moved and no longer had room for them to push each other around in it ! My mum had an old Vtech one - the noises were irritating and they have long since lost interest.

Hi...we have both. The V tech does "speak" with an English accent, which I wanted (!), and has lots of other uses on the entertainment front. The wooden blocks one is downstairs, as I object to too much plastic! But test drive a wooden one before you buy...amazingly some won't support a baby's weight when learning to walk and topple over easily. They are both popular with my dd, with no real preference shown, maybe marginally the V Tech as it is more interactive!

the Vtech is soooooo annoying. DH didn't even recognise 'twinkle, twinkle little star' on it as the soound is so tinny. Get the wooden one

Personal taste really but I'D GO FOR THE TRAD ONE. OOpps sorry.
I think this interactivity business is massively overrated. Your child will develop his imagination much more with the wooden one. Take out the bricks eventually - it can be a teddy chariot, a truck, etc.
Oh and it won't irritate the **out of you every time he trundles it across the floor.

Wooden one.

we had both and the wooden one won by miles. Ds (and dd) both really liked the vtech but also bored of it. Ds (5) is still playing with the blocks in the walker now.

ELC do a really really nice one, that doesn't speak, but does all sorts of things for about 35 pounds

DD got a Fisher Price Stride to Ride walker as a present, it starts off as a walker but then convert into a little ride on thing. She loves it. It had balls with it and a little hoop thing and also has the most irritating tune (which has never been turned on). She puts everything and anything in it and pushes it along. I agree the interactive things are fine for a while but after that they use them as they want (if that makes sense). If I were buying it I would go for traditional, DD loves stacking her bricks and also it will be used as a cart for everything else.

I get annoyed with anything that tries to be 2 or 3 in 1, because invariably one bit is crap, and it's usually the reason you bought it in the first place. You will get more use out of the block trolley, because even competant walkers love pushing things around, collecting things and storing them in the trolley.

If you get a silent one though - you have to provide all the encouragement and noise.

we got dd1 the old fashioned wooden one with bricks - she loved it! no batteries to replace either.....

so what have you decided ginger075?

I will definitely be going for the wooden one now-thank you eveyone for all replies. Perhaps I will also buy dh and self a pair of sturdy slippers (each).

but how will he learn his alphabet if he doesn't have a vtech walker to teach him???

hi we had both. Ds was not bothered by the wooden one but loved the vtech one. Sold the wooden and kept the vtech for baby which if ds sees he wants to play on it and he was 2 last week.

actually just thought...think ds didnt like the wooden one as we have a bag of huge wooden blocks and cylinders which he prefers to play with.

CFM - He will just have to watch Sesame Street (is it still on T.V. I wonder).

god, i hope it's still on - was my fave show when i was tiny.

I will advise the wooden baby push walker. It is more stable than the plastic ones.