(HealthDayNews) -- Aside from offering no real benefit to children, baby walkers are opposed by the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) for reasons including:
- They send more than 14,000 children to the hospital every year.
- At least 34 children have died since 1973 because of baby walkers.
The physicians' group says children in baby walkers can:
- Roll down the stairs -- breaking bones or injuring their heads;
- Get burned -- by reaching up to a stove, counter top or table and touching a hot cup, pan or, closer to the ground, a radiator, fireplace or space heater;
- Drown -- by falling into a pool, bathtub, or toilet while in a walker;
- Be poisoned -- reaching for something high off the floor or something lower, such as poisons stored under the sink or in a cabinet, and
- Pinch fingers and toes -- by getting them caught, for example, between the walker and a piece of furniture.
The AAP says while walkers do not help children learn to walk sooner than they otherwise would, they do give little ones the ability to zoom around surprisingly quickly.
Sadly, most of the accidents kids have in walkers happen while an adult is watching, the AAP says.
