According to Reuters on September 17, a new study found that more than five infants in the United States are injured every day because of the use of walkers. The researchers said that although the number of infants injured due to the use of walkers has declined significantly in the past 30 years, there are still too many infants injured.
According to the data from the National Electronic Injury Monitoring System, researchers estimated that between 1990 and 2014, about 230676 infants were injured among children under 15 months of age due to the use of walkers.
Dr. Gary Smith, co researcher of the study and director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy of the National Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, said that this study only counted children who were treated in the emergency department of the hospital, so these figures may be underestimated.
Smith also said: "For infants who are not fully developed, the walking cart moves too fast, which can reach 4 feet per second (about 1.2 meters). The walking cart is still the main cause of injury to infants, but this injury is avoidable, so infants should not be allowed to use the walking cart. Parents can choose safer alternatives, such as fixed activity centers that do not have wheels but can rotate, shake and jump. Or let the baby lie on the floor with his belly on the ground, and slowly push up, then crawl, and finally learn to walk. This method was popular in the past and was beneficial to infants.
According to the research published in the medical journal Pediatrics, most injuries are caused by infants falling down the stairs in the walker, resulting in head or neck injuries.
From 1990 to 2003, injuries caused by walkers declined by 84.5 per cent, probably due to voluntary safety standards adopted by manufacturers. Over the same period, injuries associated with falling down stairs were reduced by 91%. In 2010, the United States issued mandatory federal safety standards, and the number of infant injuries caused by baby walkers decreased again every year, by 22.7%. Even though the number is declining, 2000 infants were injured in 2014.
As for the reason why parents still buy baby walkers, Dr. Smith said: "Many parents believe that baby walkers bring entertainment to children and promote babies to learn to walk when they are busy doing other things. But in fact, baby walkers will not improve babies' walking skills. And other studies have shown that baby walkers can temporarily delay infants' intellectual and motor development. "
Dr. Smith said: "Since the baby walker has no substantive benefits for infants, it may even bring serious injury risks. We support the appeal of the American Academy of Pediatrics to ban the production, sale and import of baby walkers."
