baby walkers

[BrownEyedMum]

My ds is very nearly a year old, and has Down's so isn't sitting yet, never mind standing / walking. BUT he loves his sit-in walker and has done for months, half the time he'd rather be in it than having a cuddle. Trouble is, every single health care professional I see tells me how terrible they are and that he shouldn't be in one blah blah blah. What am I supposed to do, he's happy there! The walker we have at the minute though is one we got given (didn't want to spend a load of money in case he didn't like it) which is now knackered. SO we want to buy him a new walker for his birthday, but don't know where to start since most of them say suitable from 6 months, I don't want him to grow out of it straight away. Any one else had problem - did you defy them and buy one, and if so which? Or did you find something else that baby enjoyed as much?

Bumping for you.

I didn't get a walker as I was against them.

I had a fisher price jumperoo, but loads of my friends had the leapfrog stations.

They are not walkers but somewhere you can put them unsupported to play. The jumperoo doubles as a bouncer.

Sorry not sure if that helps at all, as I am not sure of the weight they go up to.

I have used one for both dd's.

Mainly because they got so angry because they couldn't get around and were much happier in their walker.

hi Browneyedmum
my grandson has been using a baby walker since he was about6 months. i remember way back being told not to leave a child in a walker for more than 20 mins twice a day, and politely advised my son and daughter in law of this. They later said he enjoyed it so much and it was easierto leave him in it for what i call long peroids o time. now at 11+ months he shows no sign of crawling or walking..and when you do try to walk him he stands always on his tip toes! he will not put his foot flat to the ground..i blame the walker for this...and his parents for allowing him to stay in it for too long.

No experience of a child with Downs, but my DS1 loved his baby walker. We defied the advice after seeing him in one of those floating chairs in the swimming pool...he loved the sensation of pushing himself along with his feet in the shallow end, and we got him a walker so he could do the same thing on dry land!

I'm sure dainty is right about being careful about leaving him in it for too long, but I don't know much about the development of children with Downs and how it might differ. Have you tried asking on the SN boards here? The problem with asking HVs and 'experts' is they always have to go with 'official' advice, and currently, this means not using walkers at all. I'd rather take the advice of experienced parents tbh!

My DS had a walker at 6 months old from Mothercare. He got to big for it after a month of two but by then you can push the seat under and use it as a walking aid. He was walking at 11 months. No tippie toes or anything like that. Saying that, he didnt spend all day in it.

Here is the link for the walker we used.

www.mothercare.com/Mothercare-3-convertible-car-walker/dp/B0018OGZ42/sr=1-6/qid=1248 367489/ref=sr16/276-4460224-3102864?_encoding=UTF8&m=A2LBKNDJ2KZUGQ&n=77157031&mcb=core