Baby Walker

Question: Can baby walkers cause bowleggedness?

(Posted by: Jacob M on 2009-03-09 08:41:37)

My exwife keeps telling me that me putting our 8- 1/ 2- month- old baby in a walker will cause bowleggedness (probably not a word). I& #039;m sceptical, and have asked around. Nobody else has ever heard of this. Have any of you? Is there any merit?

Posted by: First Time Mommy on 2009-03-09, 08:45:48

I don 't know about bowleggedness but walkers can inhibit their natural walking. Babies tend to walk on their tip toes in walkers, so it may take them longer to learn how to walk. They also can 't see their feet, so they don 't get the basics of walking down.

Posted by: Jillian on 2009-03-09, 08:47:53

IDK about bowlegged but i know that it 's not good for the hips and it can delay walking

Posted by: Teeny Beeny on 2009-03-09, 08:54:35

Not sure about the whole bowlegged thing, but it can impede walking and mess with a baby 's developing muscles. EDIT: To whoever 's giving all the thumbs downs-Do some research, talk to a DR, ANYTHING-Walkers are 100% proven to interfere with normal muscle development. They are illegal to buy, sell, and own in some places, including all of Canada. Saying "I use a walker and my kid 's fine " is like saying "I smoked and drank while pregnant, and my baby turned out fine. "

Posted by: wise_owl on 2009-03-09, 08:55:12

They are not good for the hips and they can interfere with the very important developmental stage of crawling. Crawling is a vital neurological function, which helps in the development of both depth perception and in cognitive development. Take your baby out of the babywalker and allow him to develop the ability to crawl.

Posted by: Malloots *Caidens Mum* on 2009-03-09, 08:55:23

Well I dont know about that but it encourages their legs to strengthen before their backs and that may cause problems when they start to walk properly or slow down their progress

Posted by: Shirley Imerite on 2009-03-09, 08:56:32

Hi! Our little guy LOVES his walker. He strolls around and has a blast. He is not bowlegged, it will not cause 'bowleggedness ', and it does not inhibit walking. The minute our guy comes out of his walker, he 's climbing and trying it on his own. If anything, it 's given him the taste of 'freedom ' that 's inspiring him to walk. He 's 9 months and he 's already moving around on his own - I 'm guessing he 'll be walking fully within another 4 weeks or so. The concerns with walkers have always been safety near stairs and such. Honestly, stairs need to be blocked off safely for any baby on the move, so if no other special safety requirements are needed (other than making sure that 'pullables ' and 'reachables ' are moved). The walkers that exist now-a-days are amazing. They are well made and safe (at least the one we use). It cannot be tipped, sees our son standing straight up with no bow, and is designed so that he can 't get physically bumped by anything. It is very different than the ones used when we were kids. I suspect some of the advice you 're getting is based on older models of the toy. On a side note, a child is no more bowlegged in such a walker than in a saucer or jolly jumper, and is less stretched than a baby being held around a parent 's hip all the time. I 'm not even sure why this is said, I find it kind of ridiculous myself. And, I really, really don 't understand how it inhibits walking? It is a fun teaching tool - not an inhibiting one. Your baby still crawls, it 's just a different activity to play with and try - it 's not a 'walker ' or crawl scenario; I don 't understand this logic. I guess if someone is going to put their child in a walker all day it 's not good, but what decent parent would even consider such a thing? I hope this helps. *Edit I reiterate - what does playing in a walker for a few minutes a day have to do with crawling? How does playing with this toy stop a baby from crawling? This makes no sense, it 's like saying that playing in a saucer or jumper will stop him/ her from crawling. What 's the difference, it 's a learning toy. No toy - walker, saucer, jumper, etc. is good if the intention is to plop your child in and leave them all day. I think there are some big stretches being made here. People make these same allegations of 'being bad ' over jolly jumpers, saucers, and many other toys too. That doesn 't mean they are legitimate allegations. More thumbs down from people who clearly haven 't tried a new model walker for their own children. *Edit Mystic is right - if your child isn 't tall enough for a walker (usually 8 months + ), then a walker shouldn 't be used. Your child needs to be flat-footed - and we use quality hard soled shoes with our little guy. It 's amazing! It will not inhibit hip development. You don 't use a walker with a 4 month old. You use it for an older baby. Walkers were banned in Canada because moron parents didn 't block stairways. Apparently some parents need the government to stop them from using things they can 't use properly. I 'm Canadian, I 've researched it, I 've seen the documentation - it 's not from bobo hips - it 's from bobo stairway falls and, frankly, really stupid parents. *Edit "I use a walker and my kid 's fine " is like saying "I smoked and drank while pregnant, and my baby turned out fine. " My comment regarding this statement... This comment means that I chose to do something dangerous and it happened to work out well, by luck perhaps. Ridiculous. What I did do was chose to research the information given, after which I came to the realization that it was contrived and ridiculous rhetoric by groups that wish to make themselves appear like experts. The frequency of this repeated bunk is representative of nothing more than copyright infringement and stolen ideas (unfortunately, stolen bad ideas). I then made a decision using my own common and good sense. I didn 't 'ignore ' good information and hope for the best, I chose not to listen to what appears to be no more than ridiculous hearsay not based on any legitimate, practical evidence at all and wouldn 't you know it - my decision was correct. Case in point - if walkers are so dangerous, the entire Generation X would be bowlegged and have displaced hips. Or, at least a portion of us? Or, at least two of us? I 'm sorry - where are these bowlegged, hip damaged people? We 're talking about millions of little ones (myself included) who played in walkers, and who are just fine. And, those were the old cheapie walkers, not the Rolls Royces that are available today. Is the coincidence that the millions of us are all just "lucky " or is it just that people have usurped the original motivation for banning walkers, which was parents who didn 't block stairways. It 's fantastic that there are people like me out there who have the goods sense to question the information that 's available. Some of it is good, and some of it is just complete crap. Sometimes, women and their experiences need to be taken into account and taken seriously. Let 's take for instance the use of Vick 's Vapo-Rub on infants. I noticed a long time ago that the use of Vick 's made matters worse for my step-children. I used my own experience to cease using Vick 's. Did people believe me? No. Because the information they were given was that it was alright. Did it make their kids worse. Yes. But, the information they were given said it wouldn 't so they didn 't believe it. Now, after all these years, Vick 's has admitted that yes - it does make matters worse. Perhaps if Vick 's and others had listened to women just like me years ago (you know, us crackpots who use walkers, right), we 'd have avoided millions of unnecessary cases of pneumonia, croup and bronchitis. Perhaps if more parents like me did question the feasibility of these sorts of findings, we wouldn 't have had Thalidomide babies, generations of women who were told breastfeeding was dirty, and I could go on. In summary, women being given poor information about their babies is far more widespread than the little legs of babies who play in a walker for 20 minutes a day.

Posted by: mystic_eye_cda on 2009-03-09, 09:01:37

Bowleggedness naturally occurs in all babies and goes away as their leg bones "ossify " which means harden. The same thing happens to all bones, and babies are even born "missing " some bones -most of which aren 't really missing by are cartilidge (like the end of your nose) until the baby gets old enough that the ossify enough to become bones. So you can call baby bones "abnormal " in comparison to adult bones.. Bowleggedness in children and adults is a medical condition which is caused by a true physical abnormality in the bone, most commonly rickets which is a nutritional deficiency. Cancer can also cause bowleggedness though it mostly only occurs in one leg. Walkers are not beneficial to development. They promote the development if shin muscles and not thigh and hip muscles which are needed to balance and walk. They also teach the baby to tip toe walk, not walk flat footed. Some walkers are also associated with a risk of hip dysplasia. Of course, in general, most babies are not damaged by using baby walkers any minor delay in walking is really not important. There are whole cultures where walking commonly happens later because babies aren 't put down on dirt floors, particularly in places where animals are kept inside the house at night to keep them safe from predators or help keep animals and people warm. You wouldn 't let your baby crawl around if you kept pigs or sheep in the house though, now would you. In some cases babies do develop fractures from walkers, but that 's actually more common with jumpers. Although babies can get enough speed in a walker to really hurt themselves. But nothing you can physically do to a baby -not letting them "sit too early ", let them "stand too early ", swaddling them too much or not enough, using a walker, bouncer, etc can effect the physical development of the bone. Even the kinds of minor fractures that happen could theoretically slow ossification because the body is too busy repairing. Major illnesses also cause slowed bone growth which can be seen in x-rays. But none of that causes bowleggedness. That 's not to say you should or shouldn 't use a walker, or that the damage it can cause isn 't problematic. But it simply can 't cause bowleggedness en.wikipedia.org/ wiki/ Bow-leg Genu varum (also called bow-leggedness or bandiness), is a deformity marked by medial angulation of the leg in relation to the thigh, an outward bowing of the legs, giving the appearance of a bow. It is also known as bandy-leg, bowleg, bow-leg, and tibia vara. Usually there is an outward curvature of both femur and tibia. "Genu varum " is distinguished from Blount 's disease because it involves both the femur and the tibia, while "Blount 's disease " affects only the tibia with no femur involvement. [...] Childhood Children until the age of 3 to 4 have a degree of Genu Varum. The child lies on its nurse 's knee with the soles of the feet facing one another; the tibia and femur are curved outwards; and, if the limbs are extended, although the ankles are in contact, there is a distinct space between the knee-joints. During the first year of life a gradual change takes place. The knee-joints approach one another; the femur slopes downward and inward towards the knee joints; the tibia become straight; and the sole of the foot faces almost directly downwards. While these changes are occurring, the bones, which at first consist principally of cartilage, are gradually becoming ossified. By the time a normal child begins to walk the lower limbs are prepared, both by their general direction and by the rigidity of the bones which form them, to support the weight of the body. [edit] Causes If a child is sickly, either with rickets or suffering from any ailment that prevents the due ossification of the bones, or is improperly fed, the bowed condition may remain persistent. Thus the chief cause of this deformity is rickets. Skeletal problems, infection, and tumors can also affect the growth of the leg, sometimes giving rise to a one-sided bow-leggedness. The remaining causes are occupational, especially among jockeys, and from physical trauma, the condition being very likely to supervene after accidents involving the condyles of the femur. Adults with rickets are thought to be bowlegged due to horse back riding.