Baby walker...no thank you!

If you have a child and you are planning to buy a baby walker, please be careful: I have found out that baby walkers are dangerous!  Baby walkers are devices on wheels that can be used by very young children who cannot  walk yet and are forced to use them to move around.

Most of us think that baby walkers give our babies the chance to do exercise keeping them out of trouble, but it is not true! A baby walker itself is not dangerous but it may endanger our children by allowing them to move around. Using a baby walker, our child may run the risk to get injured: by falling down stairs or into a pool. Not to mention the possibility of getting burned by knocking over a cup of steaming coffee, for example.

In 2004 Canada put under a ban the importation of baby walkers and forbade their sell and advertisement, too. The American Academy of Pediatrics is pressing the US Government to do the same thing. Since 2008 United States and Australia introduced baby walker models complying with the standard ones to make them much safer. In 2009 the European Commission, has faced the problem as well, adopting the European standard for baby walkers to prevent infant accident.

Since 1973 Baby Walkers have been involved in 34 deaths and every year more than 14000 children are taken to hospital for major injuries! Moreover, many studies demonstrate that using baby walkers does not help a child to walk earlier but a few weeks later. In 1999 the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics published a research that highlighted  the gap, on physical and mental development scores, between children who used walkers and children who never used them: the first scored 12% lower compared to the others.  Furthermore, the UK's Child Accident Prevention Trust showed that baby walkers are more dangerous than any other nursery product traded.
 
Statistics demonstrate that,  in spite of  warnings, million of baby walkers are still sold every year. So, if you are still interested in buying a baby walker, please make sure that your home is childproofed!!