Paediatrician wants baby walkers to be banned

ONE of Ireland’s leading paediatricians has called for an outright European ban on baby walkers, which are used by thousands of Irish parents in the belief they are a safe place to keep babies entertained and help them learn to walk.

Professor Alf Nicholson, a paediatrician in Temple Street Children’s Hospital, Dublin, said the popular nursery items, which allow babies between five and 15 months move around independently within a wheeled frame, can cause serious injuries, adding that research shows they do not even help babies learn to walk.

In many European countries baby walkers are linked to more injuries than any other type of nursery equipment, “causing an unacceptably high number of severe falls, burns and scalds, and poisonings” he revealed, adding that data from nine European countries show that over 90% of baby walker injuries are to the head, with 31% of them causing brain injury, and 35% causing skull injury.