Opinions on Walkers please

[tayroo]

Hi, my DD is 5.5 months and I was considering buying her a walker but am a little stumped as to which one to get her. Space isn't a problem so either will be fine and I'm not too concerned about it hindering her ability to walk as my mom had both my brother and I in walkers as babies and we both walked from 9/10 months. So here they are....

www.twoleftfeet.co.uk/acatalog/Two_Left_Feet_Graco_Fun_Center_Extenda_230.html

Graco Funstop Walker
www.twoleftfeet.co.uk/acatalog/Two_Left_Feet_Graco_Funstop_Walker_228.html

Thanks in advance

Hercules, I was n't suggesting that to be the case. Many of us will have had scenarios where you turn around and something potentially dangerous has occurred in that split second. However this article suggests that many parents have one because they assume it will keep their baby safe (admittedly based on US stats which may not hold true for UK parents). Haven't been able to locate any similar stats for UK.

sorry twinkie, there were a couple of things about walkers on the link, namely:

Rospa do not recommend the use of babywalkers, for reasons that research suggests that half of all infants who use babywalkers receive some kind of injury.

New styled walkers have been particularly cited as causing significant developmental delay, at time of use, compared with those infants who have never used one.

Baby walker injuries are 12 times more likely to involve stairs.

90% of all babywalker related injuries affect the head or face.

Babies can travel up to seven miles a hour in a babywalker.

There is clear advice to avoid the use of babywalkers to minimise the risk of your child having an accident, it does not enourage walking, infact there is evidence building to show that it can infact hinder development.

We had an old Graco Play Centre which was given to 2nd hand by my best friend. It's a stationary thing, so not a wala=ker per se. Ds did like it, although we didn't use it that often.

I know that friends we lent it in turn, who had twins, found it useful to keep one kid occupied/safe while they were dealing with the other.