Baby Walkers Delay Motor and Mental Development

Many parents use baby walkers to provide mobility and exercise for their young, pre-ambulatory infants. Manufacturers now equip most walker devices with a wide opaque plastic tray and relatively small leg openings to decrease the likelihood of tipping accidents or suffocation from the infant’s head being wedged in the seat. This design prevents the infant from seeing his or her moving legs. Developmental studies suggest that visual feedback about body position and limb movement is necessary for the timely acquisition of motor milestones.^1,2 Therefore, pre-ambulatory walker experience may be conceptualized in terms of early deprivation reminiscent of that created in a classic series of animal experiments on the critical role of visual feedback in developing motor systems.

Siegel and Burton …