Baby walkers

Baby walkers have a frame mounted on wheels or castors that surrounds the infant and which the infant can hold on to.  These products allow infants to stand up and move around on their feet while they are still at the crawling stage or learning to walk. 

On this page

• Risks
• Injuries
• Access to dangerous items

Risks

Child safety experts do not recommend baby walkers, due to the:

• various serious injuries children can suffer when using them
• possible delays in learning to walk caused when children frequently use walkers for periods of over 15 minutes at a time.

Infants who can’t walk do not have the skills to identify potential hazards or avoid them quickly enough, so parents or carers must always supervise infants in baby walkers.

Injuries

Children can suffer head injuries and other serious injuries such as fractures if the baby walker they’re in tips over or falls down stairs. Head injuries are the most frequent and serious injuries associated with baby walkers.

Access to dangerous items

 Children in baby walkers can also gain access to hazardous areas that they normally can’t reach, such as:

• bench tops where children may find hot food or drinks or sharp objects
• kitchen utensil drawers where sharp objects are stored
• ovens and other appliances that can cause burns.

To minimise these risks, there is a mandatory standard for baby walkers.