Baby walker on the playground?

[yamilee21]

Today at the playground, someone had a baby, who looked about 8-10 months old, sitting in a baby walker. It looked odd and out of place in the park; I'm guessing the mother/caretaker had other children to supervise yet wanted the little one to have some activity as well. On the one hand, the baby was happily moving around the playground, far more active than most babies of limited mobility would be (I usually see babies that age at the playgrounds strapped into strollers having very little interaction). On the other hand, baby walkers are rather unsafe (they are illegal in Canada, AAP strongly discourages their use and has called for them to be banned, etc.) - the caretaker kept yelling at various children to watch out for the baby as they kept running into her, though fortunately, the space was open enough that there was little she could crash into on her own.

[treqi]

eeh I dunno about that.... when dd was 8-10mo I would help her crawl around and zoom her down the slide and go on the baby/toddler swings

[sugarmoon]

That is a hard age for playgrounds, when you have older children to supervise. I've never had a baby walker, but frankly, I think it was probably a pretty good solution. If the baby was happy and the mom/caregiver was able to take care of all the kids then I say its fine.

I think it is one of those situations where it is easy to judge, but unless you really know the whole situation, you just don't know, yk?

[elmh23]

Having a mobil baby and an older child to supervise down right sucks sometimes. Now, I never took a walker to the playground (we don't have one) but something to keep ds out of trouble would be nice if I had to attend to his sister. Thankfully we're usually at the park for playgroup or with daddy so there are extra hands that I trust to help.

[Demeter9]

seems like the perfect place for one. No stairs.

[bdavis337]

Sounds a lot like putting the baby walker, sans wheels (easy way to convert it to a standing play station) out in my backyard for the baby while the older boy and I played together. Baby gets to look around and be part of the action, he's safe and happy and up off the ground and all is well.

Walkers are potentially a danger, yes, but on an open field type area, really, they're not that bad. It's the stairway danger that's the biggest problem.

[wannabe]

Originally Posted by Demeter9

seems like the perfect place for one. No stairs.

Your playgrounds are different to ours - path edges, wood chips, steep slopes. Masses of hazards.

I've got a friend with two within 18 months of each other. I feel ill watching her try to cope at the playground.

[jeca]

I thought the only reason why baby walkers are deemed" unsafe" was because they can fall down stairs or situations like that? If so and the playground is a flat surface I don't think it's a bad idea.

[JustJamie]

Originally Posted by jeca

I thought the only reason why baby walkers are deemed" unsafe" was because they can fall down stairs or situations like that? If so and the playground is a flat surface I don't think it's a bad idea.

They're also bad for hip/leg development and encourage toe-walking...but if used in reasonable doses, they're okay. I used one with my DD in our old house, which was completely flat - didn't even have a ledge at the front door. I won't use one with this baby in this house, because we have too many stairs and there are "lips" between the hardwood floors and the tile floors in various areas of the house.

But, based on our playgrounds here, which have a hard, rubbery surface, a walker would be useful for that purpose - I hadn't thought of that, but am liking the idea.

[Qestia]

at our playgrounds there are usually a few of the kind of walkers you push around, not the ones the baby sits in though, but the push ones were great for ds learning to walk, the surfaces were soft so he didn't get hurt when he fell. (and he was barefoot all the time to boot--got lots of dirty looks for that)

[jdedmom]

I had often used an Exersaucer outside with my oldest. With my youngest two we hand a hand me down walker and let them scoot around on our flat paved driveway. They all loved it. I think it's great.:

My cousin had something for his son (now 2yo) that was stationary in the middle and the baby could walk in circle around the thing. I tried to find a picture. I found this...a walker with a handle! http://cgi.ebay.com/NIB-3in1-BLUE-Ba...QQcmdZViewItem

We thought it was funny because he needed a big area to go around in circles and not be in arms reach of anything else. I guess because it was stationary it's safer.

[ghostlykisses]

I do not think it is really any different than some one letting a baby that age sit in a stroller safety wise. A stroller could just as easily roll away and probably would actually be easier to knock over. The walker probably kept the baby more entertained and let it the baby have a better view of the action. Weird maybe but I guess I would not find anything wrong with it as long as there was no danger of it going down stairs or rolling into the street.