Walker For Babies Good Or Bad | Walker For Kids
Can we use walker for babies?
Straight answer is a big NO. Why is it so? Firstly, parents buy walker for their babies thinking that it will help their baby to walk early. But this is not true. Basically walker doesn't help baby walk early by any means. In fact it can delay walking milestone in babies. Babies before walking will sit, crawl stand then comes walking.
So the motivation for babies to do these things will be baby's urge to move around. basically if a baby wants to go to a place or wants a toy, she will try to reach it by some means. Ultimately this pushes them to crawl and move around. Next stage of this locomotion is walking. In babies using walker, the need for locomotion is met by the walker hence baby will not even try to crawl or walk.
Baby will have only walker in their mind if she wants to move. Secondly, the movement using walker is not by using walking like steps. baby will push with both legs to cruise around. So babies who are used to walker, while doing actual walking, the process of taking steps to may be confusing. So baby may have a delay in walking and cal fall often. Thirdly, if a baby walks, it needs strength over back muscles, they will need proper balance.
Only then they will walk properly. For instance, while sitting baby's trunk and back muscles will become strengthened. next, while crawling, baby learn the pressure needed to move around, how long will it take to reach an abject at crawling speed, also hand and leg coordination will improve. Next, while standing, babies will learn to balance with both feet. after achieving all these when baby starts to walk, it will utilize all the learned information and skill to walk properly.
But excessive use of walker will prevent your baby from attaining all these essential skills and experiences. They will learn only one thing, "I can move if I push with legs". This will impair their development process. Like I said, the pushing movement used in the walker will prevent baby from taking step by step movement. So using walker will not make baby walk early. So what should I do to make my baby walk? After a baby is born, it starts to smile at mom, then attains neck control, then roll over all these things baby does on its own and we aren't teaching them.
They will do it automatically as baby matures. So when baby does all these on its own, trying to train walking by 6 to 7 months is not appropriate. Next problem is using walker can lead to lots of accidents. A 8 to 9 month old baby, will crawl at her own pace. Baby's brain also can control only that speed. In case of walker, it moves fast after pushing with baby's feet. Baby cant control this increased speed. There is high chance that baby can fall in stairs or prone to other injury For this reason, countries like Canada and US advice against walkers strictly.
Next is baby can easily reach objects which are out of their reach otherwise. So they can end up in getting hold of dangerous objects. The same objects may be out of reach if they are crawling. For example, knife, sharps, electric equipment etc. may harm them. Next important issue is while baby pushes in walker repeatedly, muscles like calf can become more developed than other muscles, this can result in baby having tip toe walking. At the same time, the trunk muscles will be having abnormal development resulting in poor balance while walking. These are the major problems in using walker.
Does baby's leg bend if we use walker?
There is no strong evidence to support this but, But even if not, the problems said till now is dangerous in itself. If you ask "Me and my relatives have used walker and babies are normal, developed normally and didn't have any problem with it." Just because you luckily reached home after a rash speed ride, it doesn't mean you can speed/rash drive all the time. (Its dangerous anyhow) Similarly, just because few babies had normal walking after walker use, we cannot expect the same from all babies.
If you use walker less, the problems will be minimal. But if you use walker for long time/excessively, there is high chance that your baby will face at least one of the problem. So Should we avoid walker altogether? Actually the answer is 'YES', but if you want to use it badly then I will say few tips to follow. Try to reduce walker use to 10-15 minutes per day. Second, supervise your baby while in walker. Thirdly, baby walker must be appropriate for the baby. Baby's both soles must be touching the ground completely. If not (tip toe) then it will cause problem. And use it only if baby enjoys it and not for other purpose. Otherwise avoid it.
As a parent what can you do to help baby walk?
Babies will start to stand with support by 10 to 11 months. At this stage you can hold both the hands of the baby and help walking. This can help her walk easily. Next you can use "Push type walker", nothing wrong if you use it. But there is a more interesting and better walker you can use small stool/chair which is available at home baby will use it as balance to walk. The unique thing is the sound which it creates will motivate babies to use it more and more. Yes I can understand that the sound will torture parents, But this can also help baby walk faster.
There is one more easiest method, that is to wait till baby walks on its own. Don't rush, we can wait even till baby reaches 15 to 18 months of age at the max. Till then if babies walk with support then that will be sufficient. So finally, the baby walker is name sake only "walker" but it doesn't help baby to walk by any means. it will be only a hurdle for the baby. So please avoid using walker. Your baby will walk irrespective of what you do and you can't stop it. So don't worry. Just give the stimulus for baby to walk. That's it, I think I have explained in detail regarding baby walkers.
0 Comments