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People believe that baby walkers will help their babies start walking faster and many also deem it to be extremely dangerous. However, it’s now safe to say that a ton of myths revolve around the use of baby walkers. It is very important that you know of the best practices and things to avoid before you allow your curious tiny tot to strut around the house in it.

What’s the right age to start using a baby walker?

This seems like an easy question to answer; however, it turns out this requires a very calculated decision. To answer this, let’s lay down a checklist.

1. Your baby must be at a stage where he/she can support their head and can hold it up on their own.
2. Your baby has learnt to be on all fours, crawls, and tries to or can stand up.
3. Your baby can sit and can’t walk yet.
4. Your baby is between the age of 6-14 months.

If you have a tick against all the points of this checklist, then woohoo! Your baby might be all equipped to use a walker. However, wait! There is a catch; baby walkers might not be the safest or the fastest way of getting your baby to walk. Let’s lay down some advantages and disadvantages and bust the myths.

Disadvantages

1. Baby walkers most definitely don’t help your baby to start walking faster. On the contrary, they might be delaying the process since baby walkers allow the child to put no strain or effort on their legs which is a counter benefit to walking without support. It also gives the child no practice of bearing their weight on their pelvis or balancing using their shoulders.
2. Babies also have a huge risk of slipping, tipping over the walker, falling downstairs, crashing into sharp or hard objects that might injure them.
3. It gives babies access to hot drinks or other dangerous objects that might otherwise be out of reach for them.
4. Injuring the skull of the baby is also a huge risk since often the head of the baby bears the impact when they fall off the walker.

Advantages

1. It helps the baby touch/ feel objects and their range of vision also expands. Overall, their mood is also uplifted since they feel independent and can explore more.
2. It also improves the baby’s mobility since they try to stretch and touch different objects and also play with the different buttons using their hands which were before engaged in crawling.
3. Their hand-eye coordination also improves.

After a thorough assessment of your baby, their needs and the advantages and disadvantages; if you decided on using a baby walker, strongly consider taking the below precautions to make sure your kid is safe while enjoying the walker.

Precautions

1. If the floor is slippery make sure you lay down a rug or an anti-slip mat.
2. Constantly supervise your child when they are using a walker to make sure they don’t run into an unsafe situation.
3. Limit the time your child stays on the walker, so that they can also practice being on all fours, trying to stand and crawl as these movements help to build the basic motor skills. 10 minutes a day is a good average time for your kid to spend on the walker.
4. Make sure the walker you are using is sturdy and supports your baby’s spine. Also make sure you use a walker of the appropriate size so that your baby’s entire foot touches the floor.

All babies are different and the circumstances are subjective therefore make sure you do your own thorough research and speak to your pediatrician if necessary. Baby walkers are a fun activity for your kid if used with all the necessary precautions and care, so don’t hold back and consider investing in a good quality walker If you decide to use one.