Baby Walkers

The Nurse Consultant for Looked After Children has given the following advice. Baby walkers are not particularly good for children and have been shown in American research to present a safety hazard to children using them. If they are used too often or for too long they can cause shortening of tendons in the foot and ankle and inhibit free walking in children. They also allow babies access to objects at a height that they would not be able to usually reach and to travel too fast at times – leading them into danger around changes of floor levels, steps and so on. It is better to put babies on the floor in a safe place and let them learn to move their bodies naturally and to develop good strong posture muscles. They can learn to pull up to stand on safe furniture/people and to cruise around at their own pace.

Baby walkers should therefore not be used, and that is the advice from Children and Families. We would expect carers not to use them even for very short periods of time. Please contact your supervising social worker if you have any queries about this new requirement.