Are Walkers Safe for Babies?
When you become a parent, you get used to everyone around you giving you conflicting advice.
If you co-sleep, you’ll never get them out of your bedroom.
If your baby sleeps in a nursery, you’ll struggle to breastfeed.
If you try to structure your baby’s day, you’ll drive yourself crazy.
And on. And on. And ON.
In the face of an overwhelming number of big decisions to make, it’s understandable that parents cling to whatever life rafts they can in the waters of logic and intuition. They read news articles, they talk to their pediatricians, they ask their own parents.
And at the end of the day, they do the scariest thing possible: they make a decision based on that input, plus what their gut says.
That’s the best any of us can really do.
So when a topic like baby walkers comes up in conversation, parents have another decision to make — are walkers safe for babies?
The Truth About Baby Walkers
The answer is, as usual, not black and white.
After a lot of scary news stories circulated about children rolling downstairs or pinching their fingers against walls, people started asking questions. In 2004, Canada moved to ban baby walkers. In 2010, the US tightened safety standards for manufacturers, requiring companies to install more safety features to reduce incidents.
Since then, the number of babies injured in baby walkers in the US has dropped dramatically, from about 21,000 in 1990 to about 2,000 per year currently.
But what’s important to note here is that these injuries are occurring because of misuse of baby walkers, not because the devices themselves are inherently dangerous — a fact that we want to get right out in the open here today.
A Warning to Parents: Baby Walkers Are Not Babysitters
We don’t do judgy here at Joovy Mag. We get that parenting is a 24/7 gig, and that sometimes, putting Peppa Pig on for the 10th time is how a mom gets to shave her legs for the first time in a month. We get doing what you’ve gotta do.
But what we don’t do is mince words, so we want to be perfectly clear here: baby walkers are NOT babysitters.
What these numbers and news stories tell us about baby walkers paints a picture of a far more unfortunate problem than just a seemingly sketchy product — parents are using baby walkers to get a minute to themselves.
And we get that. We’re down with that. We FULLY support parents taking a minute (or 20). And we fully get that so many parents do not have villages, that they do not have the support they need to take care of themselves.
But we do not support, nor do we recommend using baby walkers for those precious minutes of self-care.
What these reports stem from are all kinds of not-watching-your-baby-related injuries, exacerbated by the fact that, in a walker, a baby sits higher, and is WAY more mobile.
Almost all of the head injuries and broken bones from baby walkers are from babies rolling downstairs, and even into pools. In other cases, babies have cruised right into kitchens and used their new height to grab a pot of boiling food off the stove.
It. Is. HORRIFYING.
And while it’s only human of us to need a minute, it is never, ever okay to use a baby walker and not closely supervise your baby.
Are Baby Walkers Recommended?
Here’s the thing — baby walkers are fun for babies, and a total riot for parents to watch their kids roll around in, but they are not developmentally necessary.
Here at Joovy, we make some REALLY great baby walkers because we love those moments, and we want parents to make more of them.
But we’re parents too, and we think you should have ALL of the facts: your baby does not need a baby walker to learn how to walk.
The American Academy of Pediatrics does not recommend baby walkers, due to the number of cases of unsupervised children getting injured in them. They cite some totally reasonable reasons for parents to avoid them, including the risk of the baby rolling down the stairs or being able to access high-up, dangerous things like stovetops.
Why Joovy Sells Baby Walkers
We have an unconventional view here at Joovy — baby walkers are FUN.
They’re not necessary, and they’re not a replacement for supervision, but babies have fun in them, and parents have fun watching them. Baby walkers give babies just a taste of the freedom and mobility that’s right around the corner when they start walking on their own, and witnessing that joy is enough to have you grinning ear to ear.
Walkers Are As Safe As You Make Them
We love parents, and we love babies, and we love helping them keep each other safe and happy. Making moments for families is a BIG part of why we make baby stuff — we love seeing families feel the joy.
You don’t have to deprive yourself of a little bit of joy. If you have a safe, wide-open space in your home that’s free of ramps and stairs, and you have 15 minutes to watch your baby cruise around with a tray full of Cheerios, we say go for it.
Baby walkers are as safe as parents make them. Take some time to prepare your space — put up baby gates to block off stairs, make the kitchen a no-cruise zone, and never, ever use a baby walker around a pool.
Be safe, be smart, and feel the joy — baby walkers have come a long way, but they’ll only come as far as parents do.
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