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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Don’t Walk Injuries Reinforce Call For Safe Infant Walkers

Sheryl Harris Akron Beacon Journal

The federal government has spent three years pondering what to do to make baby walkers safe - and at least 10 babies have died in walkers during that time.

To stave off government-imposed regulations, manufacturers have promised safer designs that could go on the market next year.

But recent studies have raised new questions about walkers’ safety and suggest their use may also delay infants’ cognitive and motor development.

“It’s time now to say enough’s enough,” says Dr. Gary Smith, author of an injury study that appeared in the medical journal Pediatrics. “Let’s get rid of the current design and let’s come up with one that’s better.”

Walkers have long been identified as the single most dangerous nursery product, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

As many as 25,000 children a year are injured badly enough while using walkers to require emergency room treatment, the agency said.

Most injuries occur when babies in walkers fall down stairs, although many children also are injured when they propel themselves into hot stoves, fireplaces or pools.

Despite the high injury rate, walkers are wildly popular: Consumers snap them up at the rate of 3 million a year.

Babies love them.

And parents, who vote with their wallets, love them, too.

Walkers don’t actually help babies walk, though, and some studies show they can hinder walking.

Dr. Andrea Carol Siegel, a psychologist now in post-doctoral studies at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, has just finished a study showing that using walkers not only delayed walking but also caused babies to test lower on intelligence tests than peers who weren’t put in walkers.

Six- to 9-month-olds who did not use walkers had significantly higher test scores than babies who used walkers - both when they were initially tested and when retested three months later.

Siegel stressed in her study, which has not yet been published, that babies put in walkers still tested within a normal range of intelligence and that her study did not look at long-term ramifications.

But she concluded that when what’s known about walker safety is paired with developmental data from her study, “the risks seem to outweigh any possible benefits of early walker exposure.”

Smith found in his study that parents put kids in walkers despite the safety warnings.

“It’s an activity that parents perceive as giving the children joy,” he said. “I’m a parent, too, and it’s nice to have somewhere you can put the child and get a little bit of a break. If they’re happy and enjoying themselves, you’ve got that extra moment where you can free up your hands. I think all of those things are compelling reasons parents use them.”

Mary Ann Isak of Norton, Ohio, said she used a baby walker for all three of her children, who range in age from 1 to 13.

The walker gave her children a view from a different perspective, which they liked. “It’s frustrating for them not being able to move around,” she said.

Isak said she baby-proofed her rooms, kept the walker in a downstairs room with no access to stairs and watched her children like a hawk.

None was ever injured.

“Other than stupid parents who leave their kids by (the) basement door steps, I don’t see what the problem is,” Isak says. “You’re never supposed to leave your child unattended.”

Baby walker manufacturers couldn’t agree more.

“The walker itself is a very safe product,” said Bob Waller, who helped design new walker testing standards in his work with the Juvenile Product Manufacturer’s Association.

“It’s unfortunate that many child caregivers do not take the necessary steps to block off stairs, close doors, keep them away from stoves,” Waller said.

But Smith, director of emergency services for the Columbus Children’s Hospital, said that’s a myth that is putting babies at risk.

“These injuries are simply unpreventable,” said Smith, who spent three years studying walker-related injuries.

A child in a walker can move at 3 to 4 feet per second. “There’s not a parent out there that can react that quickly,” Smith said.

In 69 percent of injuries, Smith found an adult was in the room when an accident occurred.

Most shocking to Smith was the severity of the injuries found in the study. One in 10 children brought into the emergency room had skull fractures.

Smith contends that walkers are dangerous by design.

In 1992 the Consumer Product Safety Commission, the federal agency charged with protecting Americans from unsafe products, refused a request to ban walkers despite lobbying from groups ranging from the Consumer Federation of America to the American Academy of Pediatrics.

But two years later, citing 11 deaths from 1989 to 1992, the CPSC said it was ready to tackle the issue.

Since 1994, when the agency began its review of walkers, at least 10 more children died in them, according to the agency’s records.

CPSC spokeswoman Nychelle White said the agency wasn’t dragging its feet as children were dying.

The agency has the power to require everything from labeling to redesigns to bans, but the law that created the agency in 1973 requires it to seek voluntary standards - those set by industry - before it sets government-mandated standards.

As the agency gathered evidence about walker injuries, manufacturers stepped in with voluntary standards that require redesigns of most walker models currently on the market.

Walkers must pass tests showing that they are too wide to fit through standard-size doorways or that they have a locking mechanism that would keep them from tumbling down stairs.

The CPSC has projected that widening walkers could reduce fall injuries by 82 percent.

The standard went into effect in July, but redesigned walkers that are JPMA-certified will not be on the market before next year, Waller said.

The CPSC will wait to see how the voluntary standard works, but it could take further action if injuries don’t drop, White said.

Although the new standard is called “voluntary,” the CPSC would have the ability to recall walkers made after July that do not meet the current standard.

But Smith points out that making this a voluntary standard allows the $115 million-a-year industry to sell off its existing stock.

Any walkers manufactured before July, whether they conform to the new standards or not, can continue to be sold, the CPSC said.

Waller said he’s not sure how the new standards will affect the industry. Baby-product companies are unveiling their 1998 product lines at a show later this month.

Many companies, including Century Products, have discontinued making walkers. Others, like Evenflo, have switched to stationary play stations like those on saucer bases.

In the meantime, parents will have to decide for themselves how to handle the walker question.

Isak, the Norton mother, said she recommends walkers and is passing hers on to a relative now that 1-year-old Michaela is toddling around on her own.

Waller of the JPMA, who has a 4-month-old, says he’ll soon be putting his baby in a walker.

And Smith, whose child, at 14 months, is now past the walker stage, said he never allowed his baby to spend a moment in a walker.

“That,” he said, “would be almost blasphemous.”