Babywalkers delay child development - study

Irish doctors advised parents yesterday not to use babywalkers because they delay the normal development of infants.

Children who used babywalkers learned to crawl, stand and walk later than other children, they said. The delays in development related to the amount of time the children spent in the walkers.

"We found strong associations between the amount of babywalker use and the extent of developmental delay," Mary Garrett, of the Mater Hospital in Dublin, said in a report in The British Medical Journal.

The researchers questioned the parents of 190 normal babies about when their children reached the normal childhood milestones and how much time they spent in babywalkers.

Babies who didn't use the walkers started to crawl and walk alone about four weeks earlier than the children accustomed to the walkers and walked three weeks earlier.

In addition to causing developmental delays, babywalkers have also been shown to increase the risk of injuries in babies.

"The use of babywalkers should be discouraged," Garrett added.