Beli "Baby Walker"

Petang tadi baru saja beli "Baby Walker" yang baru untuk Afiqah. Terpaksa beli kerana Anwar dan Shafiqah dah patahkan walker lama. Apa tak patah, keduanya naik walker, apa lagi, overloadlah. Nak marah pun tak boleh, budak2... apa yang mereka faham kecuali keseronokan bermain.

Tadi beli walker yang ringkas2 je, sebab Afiqah dah mula start berdiri dan bertatih. Nampak gaya tak lama lagi dah boleh jalan lah tu. So walker yang ada sekadar boleh masukkan baby supaya dia tak merayau2 di bawah kerusi meja.

Tapi apa kata mereka pasal baby walker...


HOUSTON, Sept. 17, 1998 -- Despite continued warnings from physicians and safety advocates about the dangers of baby walkers, 90 percent of children under age two are still put in them. As a result, nearly 20,000 children are treated in emergency rooms each year for baby walker-related injuries.

"Even if a parent is nearby to supervise, a walker greatly increases a child's chances of falling, especially around an open stairway," said Dr. Joan Shook, chief of the Emergency Medicine Service at Texas Children's Hospital. "Nearly half of the children who use the walkers get injured."

The devices, long considered an easy and entertaining way to occupy a child's time and provide exercise, can gather speed quickly -- moving as fast as four feet per second -- and put children at risk for falls and give them access to other hazards.

The majority of children with baby walker-related injuries fall down stairs (80 percent) and many sustain serious head injuries. Other injuries occur when a child tips over in the walker, pulls down hot liquid or food, suffocates or drowns due to increased mobility in a baby walker.

Because baby walkers are so harmful, Dr. Shook recommends the following guidelines for parents:

• Never use baby walkers with wheels.
• Use stationary activity centers or walker alternatives, such as Exersaucers(TM)
• Supervise infants at all times.

Texas Children's Hospital in Houston is a 456-licensed bed, non-profit pediatric specialty hospital, the largest children's hospital in the United States. Founded in 1954, Texas Children's has trained nearly 80 percent of all Texas pediatricians as the primary pediatric teaching and research hospital for Baylor College of Medicine, one of the top 20 U.S. medical schools in research funding.

Within its spectrum of more than 40 pediatric specialties and subspecialties, Texas Children's is known worldwide for developing breakthrough treatments in all areas of children's health care, including childhood cancer, cardiology, neonatology, asthma, diabetes, organ transplantation and gene therapy. More than 3300 physicians, medical and professional personnel care for patients and their families at Texas Children's Hospital, located in the heart of Houston's world-renowned Texas Medical Center.

Another Article Doctors' groups says they're dangerous.

(HealthScoutNews) -- 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.
• 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.