Canada Bans Baby Walkers -- severe head injury risk

I’m surprised they haven’t also banned stairs. ;)

Repeat after me…the government knows best.

John

[quote=”victoria”]
The recommendation is that if you have one, you should *destroy it* so it can not be re-used; the TV report showed a mother ripping off the wheels with the prongs of a hammer and cutting the seat in pieces.[/quote]

Or, as an alternative, you could just make sure you are actually watching the baby while he uses the walker. Not to speak of making sure stairs are securely fenced.

The things are pretty dangerous — basically they give the kiddo mobility without balance… sorta like putting me behind the wheel of a car… but I do suppose there’s something to be said for John’s Darwinian approach — gee, we’ll weed out a few from the gene pool… I do think too much regulation gets us out of the habit of evaluating risks all by our little selves but there’s a lovely grey area where it’s babies involved.

Several other peole have chimed in with replies, and I added some more details on one of the parenting boards. Please check in there.

John, if you want to breathe pure DDT, live next door to an unregulated lead factory and down the road from an unregulated asbestos mine, have your kids pay in the asbestos heaps, drink water where PCB’s are dumped directly, and play hockey goalie without a helmet, that’s OK by me, you can go ahead for yourself. All of those examples are real and DID happen in my home area in my youth, by the way.
I would prefer for myself and my family to have serious dangers stopped by a representative group that has the power of all the people behind it, because one person doesn’t have a hope in *&&^ of closing the asbestos heaps — I know, they tried, right here.

Well, my kids all used walkers and I loved them! Heck, unattended toddlers may also tumble down the stairs while crawling, so I’m in agreement with the other poster, let’s ban stairs! Hey, OR we could require helmets and elbow pads with walker use!

Janis :wink:

Aw, c’mon Victoria, I put in a little winky smilie. ;)

They’ve nearly banned guns and now they’ve outlawed walkers, what’s next automobiles? Cars kill and injure far more children than the first two put together. And swimming pools, don’t forget to ban the swimming pools. And buckets, small children drown in buckets. Or are the pools and buckets frozen year-round up that way? :D :) :roll:

John…I’m just trying to have a good time. ;)

To Janis — go over to this same topic on the Parenting ADHD (I think — may be parenting L) board and read from a mother who had exactly the kind of accident warned against. Hmmm, about a hundred regular users, and in the first day after the report, at least one out of a hundred spoke up and reported a serious injury; not to mention other problems also mentioned on that thread. One in a hundred is a *very high* risk to take with babies, I hope you agree!

Glad you were lucky, but even those of us who watch our kids like hawks slip now and then. My kid started sleepwalking at age 2 1/2 and nearly got out the front door onto a main street at 3 AM, but luckily I woke up at the sound; I then put anti-turn thingies on all the outside doors after that.

One of my friends wasn’t so lucky. She has a glass eye. When she and her little brother were two and three, mom was watching them in the yard. But what mom didn’t see was that the thing little brother picked up wasn’t a blade of grass, but a long sharp piece of wire. He tried to show it to sister and poked too hard.

It’s all a question of risk management. Every minute of every day you make decisions and weigh risks against benefits. The most dangerous thing you do every day is to get into a car to go to work — highest cause of death in North America age 0 to 35. But you have to travel, and we can’t go back to horses which had a lot of dangers of their own.

Baby walkers have very, very high risk — I worked out, on other board, 1 in 150 chance of emergency room visit in one year, unacceptably high, way higher than cars even. And they have very low benefit as noted in the article.

To John BT — to quote my grandmother, there is a time and a place, and this isn’t it.

When warning people about a very high risk of head trauma, in a forum where most of the people have kids in special education, somehow it seems inappropriate to make jokes about kids getting injured.

It strikes me as odd that you would find this an issue to joke about, at the same time as you post in another forum about all your experience working with people with various kinds of health problems and injuries and concomitant learning and work problems.

****************************************************

My jokes about our climate and border control and talking to the ducks are on other threads, where you’re more than welcome to make a silly comment.

Yes, we do get thaws here in summer. The old joke up north is seven months of winter and five months of poor snowshoeing.
Actually here in the south of the country (that’s just north of Vermont) we have the major city with the world’s *most variable* climate. Winter hit
-30C = -23F and stayed there a few weeks; summer commonly hits 25 to 30C = 77 to 86F, sometimes higher, and stays there for several weeks, also very humid, also the sun rises at 4AM and sets at 10PM. Come up for the International Jazz Festival at the end of June/beginning July and get a great tan and some good beer at the free outdoor shows.

We have hundreds of thousands of lakes and one heck of a big river just down the block, and we do get too many drownings. A high percentage of them are American tourists … but no, the police check very carefully to make sure they’re accidental, you’re not in danger from the locals, just the beer.

Victoria, of course accidents happen even when parents are diligent. All kids fall down and scrape knees or get a cut, etc. despite the parents being a few feet away. But I was certainly not “lucky” my kids didn’t get hurt with baby walkers. I never had a baby walker in the vicinity of stairs, so it was quite impossible to have an accident. It is falling down the stairs that is dangerous, and that must be prevented whether there is a baby walker or not.

Janis

Here is what the American Academy of Pediatrics has to say about baby walkers. Read on please:

AAP Fact Sheet
Baby Walkers are Dangerous!

Baby walkers send more than 14,000 children to the hospital every year.
34 children have died since 1973 because of baby walkers.
Children in baby walkers can:

Roll down the stairs - which can cause broken bones and head injuries. This is how most children get hurt in baby walkers.

Get burned - a child can reach higher when in a walker. A cup of hot coffee on the table, pot handles on the stove, a radiator, fireplace, or space heater are all now in baby’s reach.

Drown - a child can fall into a pool, bathtub, or toilet while in a walker.

Be poisoned - reaching high objects is easier in a walker.

Pinch fingers and toes - by getting them caught between the walker and furniture.

There are no benefits to baby walkers.

You may think a walker can help your child learn to walk. But, in fact, walkers do not help children walk sooner. Also, some babies may get sore leg muscles from spending too much time in a walker. Most walker injuries happen while adults are watching. Parents and other caregivers simply cannot respond quickly enough. A child in a walker can move more than 3 feet in 1 second! Therefore, walkers are never safe to use, even with close adult supervision. Make sure there are no walkers at home or wherever your child is being cared for. Child care facilities should not allow the use of baby walkers.

If your child is in child care at a center or at someone else’s home, make sure there are no walkers.

Throw out your baby walkers!

Try something just as enjoyable but safer, like:

“Stationary walkers” - have no wheels but have seats that rotate and bounce.
Play pens - great safety zones for children as they learn to sit, crawl, or walk.
High chairs - older children often enjoy sitting up in a high chair and playing with toys on the tray.
As of July 1, 1997, new safety standards were implemented for baby walkers. Walkers are now made wider so they cannot fit through most doorways and can stop at the edge of a step. But these new walker designs will not prevent all injuries from walkers. They still have wheels, so children can still move fast and reach higher.

The American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Association for Children’s Hospitals and Related Institutions (NACHRI) have called for a ban on the manufacture and sale of baby walkers with wheels.

Keep your child safe - throw away your baby walker.

To Janis — I hope you read the above bulletingn from the American Academy of Pediatrics, kindly posted by Lilith. Stairs are *not* the only danger, by a long shot. And yes, you were lucky. Good for you, but other equally careful parents did not have as good an experience as you did.

Victoria, I don’t have any more to say on this other than Dad wrote an excellent reply to this on another forum. I agree with him 100%.

Janis

I agree with Victoria. How can one argue the point? None of us are infallable… are we?

“Yours is an excellent reply, and you have brought up some good points.

Dad wrote:

” As far as the AAP’s statistics… If 34 kids dying as a direct result of walker falls since 1973 (about 1 a year) is reason to ban something such as a walker, then what does that say about the pertussis vaccination which has killed 600 infants in the period 1988-2000 (36 per year) or the HepB which has killed 575 from 1991-2000 (57 per year)? (Recall that the list of adverse events associated with vaccines is deliberately understated to reduce criticism of the mandatory policy.) For that matter, Shaken Baby Syndrome kills several dozen children each year. and that is something that the parents should have far more control over than an accidental fall. ”

Your comparison regarding the number of children dying from baby walkers vs. the number of children dying from the pertussis and HepB vaccinations scare the daylights out of me, as it should ALL PARENTS. I know I need say no more on that topic, for you are far more the expert there. But I will say that it is downright sinful how uninformed parents are when they take their precious baby in to the pediatrician, for the mandatory vaccinations, and the (high paid) doctor doesn’t see fit to enlighten them about the risks involved BEFORE the shots are administered.

But… your analogy regarding Shaken Baby Syndrome illustrates Victoria’s point to a tee. Canada has banned these baby walkers, and hopefully, we are not far behind. They should have been banned years ago, according to the AAP. I have to say that I agree with this. I posted on the other board why I got rid of my baby walker. (My oldest daughter didn’t have one, but the little one did.) I came home from work one afternoon, and my babysitter had my little girl in the walker, in the yard, on the cement part, with the walker itself tied to the fence. I got rid of the walker that same night.

As parents, we are not perfect. One little second out of our lives, we could just turn our head, and a disaster could occur, one that we could not have prevented anyway, and we cannot turn back the hands of time. I had to work, and my baby was in the care of another, who, by the way, was not negligent; in fact, on the whole, she was a great nanny for my daughters. As another poster said, why tempt fate, when there are so many other choices to entertain your baby, that aren’t dangerous? I can see that you are playing the devil’s advocate here, which is fine, but we are talking about babies. One dead baby is one too many for me, especially if it occurred because of an article of entertainment the child was using that is known to be dangerous.

It has always interested me that, to obtain a drivers’ license, one must first pass a written test, to prove that one has the necessary knowledge, then one must take classes to learn more, and then take a driving test, to make certain they should be behind the wheel of a moving vehicle at all, which is too often a weapon in itself. I do not disagree with this policy; I think it is necessary, and it still isn’t foolproof. But, to put a child on this earth, what qualities must one possess? There are no mandatory classes to take, no tests to pass. Almost anyone can have a child. And back to Victoria’s point, that is why the ban on baby walkers is needed. Yes, you watch your children, I watch mine, she watches hers, but not everybody is as conscientious as we (and most parents) are. Even all the good intentions in the world will not stop an accident that happens in a split second, that didn’t have to happen at all, simply because the child was in a baby walker.”

Dad — risk versus benefit again — how many kids died and how many were disabled for life when those vaccines were *not* used?

My mother happens to be a polio survivor with one leg two inches shorter than the other and severe scoliosis, by the way, and she was one of the lucky ones.
She was strongly in favour of vaccinations for some odd reason and lined us up whenever a new one became available.

My daughter has the family allergy tendencies and had a high fever with every vaccine. She got them later than normal and I stocked up on Tylenol, but she did get them.

**Of course** safer vaccines are a necessary goal. Meanwhile, those we have are safer than going without.

For anyone not taking this issue as seriously as they should…

From the Toronto Star:

Canada bans sale of `dangerous’ baby walkers
Tied to 2,000 injuries in 12-year span `Many parents don’t know the risks’

BRUCE CAMPION-SMITH
OTTAWA BUREAU

OTTAWA—Canada has become the first country in the world to ban infant walkers in a strong signal to parents about the dangers posed by these once popular products.

Health Canada announced yesterday it had imposed an immediate prohibition on the sale, resale, advertisement and importation of baby walkers into the country.

“Canadians must know about the dangers posed to infants through the use of baby walkers,” Health Minister Pierre Pettigrew said in announcing the move.

The prohibition also applies to the sale of second-hand baby walkers at flea markets or garage sales. The government is urging anyone who has a baby walker to dismantle it and throw it in the garbage.

Pediatricians and child-safety advocates endorsed the ban, which they have long called for. But now they worry about the fate of thousands of walkers tucked away in closets that might be passed down among family members. Safe Kids Canada, an advocacy group, estimated last year there are 500,000 walkers in the country.

“Many, many parents simply don’t know that wheeled walkers are dangerous … that’s why there’s so many,” said Dr. Robin Walker, an Ottawa pediatrician and president-elect of the Canadian Pediatric Society.

“Clearly there’s a big gap in public education,” he said.

That’s why pediatricians are calling on government to back its ban with strict enforcement and an ambitious education campaign to get the word out.

The wheeled walkers were meant for children who can sit up but can’t yet walk on their own. But experts say babies simply don’t have the skills, reflexes or cognitive abilities needed to use the walkers safely.

Between 1990 and 2002, Health Canada estimates that almost 2,000 children were injured in accidents involving walkers. However Safe Kids Canada says the accident rate is even higher and estimates some 1,000 babies a year are injured.

“There are many dangers. The worst accidents happen when children fall down stairs. Even a gate doesn’t prevent that because there’s enough momentum in these things that they can go straight through,” Walker said.

In those accidents, children have suffered multiple fractures, internal injuries, concussions and even skull fractures, he said. In other cases, the walkers have put children within reach of dangers such as poisons in cupboards, electrical outlets and pots on the stove.

There’s no evidence either that the walkers actually encourage babies to walk, Walker said. “They may actually get in the way of it because the muscular development they encourage is not the same as walking.”

Most big retail stores have not stocked walkers since a voluntary ban went into effect in 1989. However, federal inspectors have noticed a growing number of street vendors and small retailers selling the products.

One local mother who purchased a walker for her 1-year-old daughter thinks the ban is misguided, the Star’s Gabe Gonda reports.

“I totally disagree with it,” said the 33-year-old Woodbridge woman, who didn’t want her name used. “It gave my daughter so much independence, so much strength. It allowed her to feel like she wasn’t alone and it allowed me a sense of security.”

The woman bought the walker during a trip to Buffalo, N.Y.

A Must-Read for parents of small children :

Book takes unsafe baby products, firms to task

By Jayne O’Donnell, USA TODAY

It’s No Accident: How Corporations Sell Dangerous Baby Products

By Marla Felcher
Common Courage Press
281 pp

After Marla Felcher watched her husband help carry the tiny casket of a friend’s 17-month-old son, she vowed to do something about it.

What she did was write a book that takes children’s product makers to task for often knowingly selling products that could injure and kill children, such as Danny Keysar, one of six children who died in a Playskool portable crib.

It’s No Accident: How Corporations Sell Dangerous Baby Products is most compelling when it tells the tales of the victims, using government and court documents chilling in their detail. Though many of the cases date to the early 1990s, they illustrate the lengths companies will go to avoid acknowledging that their products can be dangerous — and how product-safety law sometimes protects companies more than consumers.

Felcher devotes much space to Cosco, including a Justice Department lawsuit over its failure to report entrapments in its toddler bed and guard rails. She reports that a 1996 settlement meant Cosco never had to answer allegations that it sold the recalled beds in Mexico but said they were destroyed.

Graco is pictured just as negatively. Felcher recounts case after case of parents putting infants in the Graco Convert-a-Cradle in the early 1990s, only to return to find them suffocated in the bottom corner. Felcher says the company blamed parents for not supervising their children in the cradle, in which 14 infants died. But Graco’s own engineers had found the head-to-toe swinging could shift babies into a corner where they might not be able to breathe.

The book benefits from Felcher’s persistence and patience. It has meticulous footnotes and references to Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) documents that took up to a year to obtain. Federal law requires that CPSC documents be requested under the Freedom of Information Act and that the agency must get a company’s permission to release the files. Files on an active investigation — which can last for years — are not released until the case is closed.

Felcher, a freelance writer and university professor, will not be mistaken for a disinterested party. She is unrelenting in her criticism of companies’ profit motives, and the rants can wear on a reader.

The book also can be as dry as a civics textbook when it covers the intricacies of consumer-product law.

But real life — and death — stories make her book difficult to put down and easily forgiven for shortcomings. With so much information that manufacturers don’t want known, it should be required reading for parents of young children.

I found it interesting that from 1986-1992 there were 11 STROLLER related deaths. Even 1 death is too many, but I agree with the poster above that companies are the culprit many times. Even if we educate ourselves we may not be privy to info that companies have covered up or not released. I don’t like gov’t interference but sometimes it is necessary when companies don’t care about consumers. Jan

… baby walkers can possibly even delay a child’s development, as well as be a serious danger. Read on:

The Bad Baby Development Device?

Many parents use baby walkers to give their their children exercise. Unfortunately new research from of New York at Buffalo and Case Western Reserve University indicates that rather than helping these devices may slow the development of infants, particularly in their development of skills like sitting upright, crawling and walking.

According to Roger V. Burton, PhD, head of the research team, “Newer-style walkers, which have large trays that prevent infants from seeing their moving feet and from grasping objects around them, lead to greater delays in physical and mental development”.

The researchers studied the mental and physical development of 109 predominately white infants from the New York area. About half had never used a walker, about a third used newer-style walkers, and the remainder used older-style walkers that allowed them to see their moving feet grab at objects around them.

The infants in the study were first tested at either 6, 9, or 12 months of age, and then re-tested three months later, using a scaled model used to measure physical and mental development. Parents then gave feedvback on when the children achieved developmental milestones like sitting, crawling, and walking.

Those babies who used newer-style sat upright, crawled, and walked later than infants who had never used a walker. Infants who used older -style walkers learned to sit and walk at about the same age as the no-walker group, but they learned to crawl at about the same age as the children who used the newer-style walkers.

On the developmental tests side, infants who used newer-style walkers had the lowest scores on physical and mental development. On the physical development tests, infants who used older-style walkers received lower scores than the no-walker group, but the differences were not statistically different.

On mental performance, those who used older-style walkers scored somewhere between the no-walker and newer-style walker groups.

The researchers think that use of newer-style walkers leads to physical developmental delays because the walkers’ large trays restrict infants’ view of their moving legs, depriving them of visual feedback that would help them learn how their bodies move through space. Baby walkers also prevent infants from exploring and grabbing at things around them, which is critical to their early mental development.

“Although in some infants the effect of walker use on mental development was measurable for as long as 10 months after initial use, it is likely that normal infants who use newer-style walkers will catch up to their no-walker peers when they walk and are no longer restricted by being put into a walker. When the danger factor is considered in conjunction with the developmental data presented by our study, the risks seem to outweigh any possible benefits of early walker exposure,” said Burton.

According to the researchers, in the United States 70 to 90 percent of parents of one-year-olds use baby walkers. Why these thing have not been banned is somewhat of an oddity in a country where consumer rights are paramount. This is even more unbelivable when you consider that in 1994 a report from the US Consumer Product Safety Commission cited baby walkers as responsible for more injuries than any other product for children!

http://www.scienceagogo.com/news/19990912132432data_trunc_sys.shtml