Baby walkers were banned in Canada 20 years ago but they're still widely used in the US, where they are linked to thousands of injuries a year. Consumer Reports is calling for a federal ban on the walkers, as is the American Academy of Pediatrics. Pediatric emergency medicine doctor James Dodington, a member of the AAP's Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention, says he has seen many children injured by walkers. "One thing that's really not well understood, I think by the public in general, is just how fast infants can travel in these walkers—multiple feet per second," he says.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, an average of around 3,000 infants a year were treated in emergency rooms for walker-related injuries between 2004 and 2008. Safety standards were tightened in 2010 and again in 2022 to prevent stair falls and tip-overs but there were still almost 2,500 injuries a year from 2021 to 2023, when walker sales were about 350,000 lower than a decade earlier. Dodington says that while stair falls may have been reduced, head and neck injuries are still common and other risks include inadvertent rolls into pools or burns from hot stoves.
- The problem of secondhand sales. Secondhand walkers that don't meet the new safety standards are often sold online or at garage sales. Lisa Fogarty at CR says a quick search on Facebook Marketplace "found hundreds of sit-in baby walkers, including one $25 'vintage toddler walker' that looked as if it were designed in the 1950s." In Canada, it's illegal to import, advertise, or sell baby walkers.
- Developmental delays. Experts say that contrary to widespread belief, walkers delay development instead of helping infants learn to walk sooner. Maral Amani, a pediatric physical therapist and child development expert, tells CR that she discourages parents from using them. "Walking is more than just leg strength; it's about the slow building of foundational skills like cruising along surfaces, getting down from standing, squatting, crawling, and core strengthening that comes from all of these movements," she says.
- A call for Congress to take action. "The evidence is clear: Infant walkers are unsafe, and the current federal standard fails to address their well-known risks," says Oriene Chin, CR's policy counsel. She is calling for Congress to take action, noting that under federal law, it is "virtually impossible for the CPSC to ban a consumer product and have it hold up in court unless it's been directed to ban the product by Congress."
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