Editor's Note
As an important category in the toy industry, "baby walkers" have recently fallen into a dilemma. Calls for a ban on sales have risen and fallen, and cases of various accidental injuries have frequently appeared in the news... But are walkers really useless? Is using a toddler aid just seedling growth? Is the criticism in the media too extreme and harsh? Listen to the ming, welcome to leave us a message at the bottom of the article, exchange.
On September 17, 2018, national public radio (NPR) reported that U.S. pediatricians renewed their call for a ban on baby walkers because walkers still cause harm to babies.
Pediatrician Benjamin Hoffman, chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics Committee on Injury and Poisoning Prevention, said: "I think baby walkers are inherently dangerous, have no benefits, and should not be sold in the United States."
Should walkers really be banned? This article analyzes the real pros and cons of walkers.
Ideal: A walker can help children practice walking and promote their development.
Reality: Children who use walkers for a long time have less motor development than children who have not used walkers.
Many mothers think that walkers can help babies carry out passive exercise and practice walking, but the results of scientists are far from it: walkers are not conducive to the physical and mental development of young children.
Follow-up surveys show that babies who use walkers can sit, and the average time to climb and walk is 6.73 months, 6.68 months and 11.66 months, respectively, which is significantly later than that of infants who do not ride a walker, and the average time to climb and walk is 5.39 months, 5.84 months and 10.82 months.
7, 8 months is the best time for babies to practice rolling and climbing, riding on the school scooter, the freedom of movement is greatly limited, and the opportunity to practice is reduced;
Because with the walker, the child can move freely at home, the attraction of rolling and climbing to the baby is greatly reduced, and the development of the child's movement is affected to a certain extent due to the lack of interest and practice.
Learning to walk requires eye, hand, and foot coordination, and the safety tray in front of the walker blocks the child's line of sight, and the baby cannot see his feet and does not understand why he is walking.
Toddler is the need to spend "strength", but because of the sliding effect of the wheel, the child's force can be "walking" with the car sliding, relying on the walker baby is easy to get up from the chair, lack of real exercise, naturally not conducive to children to learn to stand and practice walking.
Ideal: A walker is a safe babysitter for your baby.
Reality: Every year, many babies are injured from using a walker.
There are many moms and dads who use walkers because they think they can keep their babies safe, and the results shake confidence in walkers, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission:
About 8,800 infants and young children under the age of 15 are injured each year due to the use of walkers.
Walkers give babies who are not good at moving and do not know the dangers of moving quickly.
The baby sitting in the walker can move up to 1 meter per second, the child's head is heavy and heavy, and it is exposed to the outside of the body frame, lacking safety protection, once it is overturned from the stairs or overturned due to uneven ground, the baby's head is easily injured.
In addition, because the child can quickly enter the danger zone (including sharp tools, stoves, hot water, toxic substance storage, etc.), the mother is caught off guard, so injuries occur from time to time, including finger pinches, abrasions, scratches, burns and accidental poisoning.
Reality beyond ideals: Walkers can affect a child's intellectual development
No one would have thought that a walker would affect a child's intelligence, but studies show:
Children who use a walker score lower on the mental development test than children who have not used a walker.
Children are through contact, grasping, knocking, throwing and other learning to recognize objects, free exploration is conducive to the development of children's intelligence, walkers restrict children's free activities, deprive children of the opportunity to learn, affect the development of children's intelligence.
The harm of walking too early: walking with insufficient feet
Baby development has its own regularity, which is closely related to the maturity of nerve and muscle development and vision development.
As the saying goes, "7 rolls and 8 climb weeks will walk", and many mothers prepare a walker for the baby early, so that the baby can sit firmly on the school scooter, and the mother thinks that she can do housework and let the baby learn to walk.
Premature or excessive or improper use of walkers, contrary to the law of infant growth, artificial "walking", will have a negative impact on infant development.
For example, a baby who is only 7 months old sits on a walker, because of his small size, the cushion is too high, and his feet cannot fully touch the ground, and he can only use his toes to touch the ground.
Over time, the baby will form a walking position with the forefoot touching the ground.
After a period of time, the posture of walking with insufficient feet can be corrected.
Safety strategies for walkers
For growing babies, walkers undoubtedly do more harm than good!
When mom and dad add toys to their babies, let's put the walker aside.
If you must try it, keeping your child safe is the most important:
Mom and dad are closely supervised, the baby walker is not a safe nanny, when the baby sits on the car, the mother should always pay attention to the child, because any obstacles, bumps may make the walker overturn, overturn.
Close the door to the stairwell When encountering the stairs, the walker will often flip down, so mom must close the door to the stairs to avoid accidents.
Move the walker on flat ground Don't let the baby in the walker move on the uneven ground so as not to tip over, and before using the walker, remove all the small things on the ground.
Avoid dangerous goods Stoves, hot water, power supplies, etc. may cause harm to the baby, and the place where the child is active should stay away from dangerous goods. Stay away from toilets and other water sources.
Can a walker really "teach" a baby to walk?
Many parents buy walkers because they think walkers can "teach" babies to walk, but in fact, there is no study that babies who use walkers learn to walk earlier than babies who don't.
On the contrary, from the law of infant growth and development, the walker violates the growth and development law of the baby from turning over, sitting, climbing, standing, and walking.
Thanks to the help of a walker, even if the baby cannot control the balance, he will not fall, but it is not conducive to the baby practicing independent walking and balance control, affecting the normal development of the baby's body muscles.
European experts have surveyed 190 babies and found that 102 babies using walkers are 3 to 4 weeks behind babies who use walkers, such as crawling and upright walking.
At the same time, if the walker span is too high, causing the baby to tiptoe to walk, it is easy to tiptoe when the baby will walk independently, which will adversely affect the baby.
If the stride is too low, the muscles that maintain the arch cannot bear their own weight, and standing for a long time will cause the arch to collapse and form a flat foot. If flat feet are formed, it will also have adverse effects on the development of the knee joint, hip joint, and spine.
In addition, some other toddler aids - toddler carts, toddler belts, the author does not recommend.
The reason is that, similar to a walker, it is difficult for the baby to control the speed of the walker, the cart slides quickly, and if it touches the steps and so on, the baby is easy to fall.
At the same time, if the pusher of the cart is set too high, the baby must tiptoe to push, which will also adversely affect the baby.
The toddler belt is also easy to make the baby tiptoe to walk, because parents are easy to pull the toddler belt too high; at the same time, relying on the pull support of the toddler belt, the baby is easy to walk up and backwards, which is not conducive to the mastery of leg strength and the mastery of balance ability.
In fact, walking is a very natural process in the process of children's physical development, parents can encourage and assist, but do not need to deliberately learn, and it is not recommended to use other toddler aids to promote seedlings.
If you really want to recommend any "tool" for safely practicing walking, it is recommended that after your baby will stand, you can let him/her practice walking on a fixed railing, a bed edge, or a lower table.