Is it good for babies to sit in a walker? Will it really cause bow legs?

I heard that babies using walkers are prone to O-shaped legs, flat feet and other problems, and many friends also recommend not using walkers. So is it good for babies to sit in walkers? Will it really cause O-shaped legs?

Will sitting in a baby walker cause bow legs?

In addition to safety issues, mothers will hear many reports from major media that using walkers is not good for young children, such as causing O-shaped legs. Especially mothers with baby girls at home will worry about their children's future gait and standing posture! In fact, babies under one year old all have O-shaped legs. This is called physiological O-shaped legs. It is a natural phenomenon caused by the fetus curling up in the mother's womb. It usually disappears within half a year after starting to walk, but slowly turns into X-shaped legs. This is due to the influence of the pendulum effect. Just like when the pendulum wants to stop, it will not stop suddenly when it reaches the bottom, but will swing left and right and stop slowly. Children will not build straight legs until they are about three years old. So, walkers will not cause O-shaped legs? No! If a child uses a walker when his feet are not strong enough to support his body (that is, when the child cannot stand up by himself by holding on to furniture), this will put too much pressure on the joints, and the bones will not be able to support the weight, causing excessive bending. This will be diagnosed as pathological O-shaped legs, and rehabilitation, treatment, or even surgery will be required at this time!

Can sitting in a walker cause flat feet?

If your baby can stand up with support, please take a look at his soles. Are they completely attached to the ground? Unlike adults, when they stand, their soles leave the ground and form an arc shape? In fact, babies have flat feet before the age of three! The arc-shaped arch on the sole of the foot is called the arch of the foot. The function of the arch of the foot is to act as a shock absorber for the human body to walk. It can cushion the reaction force of the ground when walking. It will appear at about the age of three. Why does the arch of the foot only appear at the age of three? This is because from the time the child starts to stand to the age of three, the sole of the foot is constantly stimulated during walking, so that the sole muscles begin to build elasticity and slowly form an arch of the foot. Therefore, the literature only finds that children who do not walk will develop flat feet, such as hypotonic cerebral palsy, and there is no direct evidence that using a walker will cause flat feet! Scholars who advocate that walkers will cause flat feet believe that when young children start using walkers when their foot muscles are not sound, they will cause excessive pulling of the sole muscles, so they cannot build the proper elasticity and cannot form an arch of the foot. Think about it carefully, is this caused by sitting in a walker? Or is it the result of using a walker too early? It is recommended that you do not regard the walker as a tool to teach your child to walk!

How to use a baby walker correctly

1. Start using at nine months old: About one month after the child starts crawling, that is, after the strength of the feet increases, let the child sit in a walker. This can help stabilize the joint position, support the body weight, and reduce the occurrence of bow legs and flat feet.

2. Adults should accompany their children at all times: When young children use walkers, adults should keep a close eye on them at all times and should not let them stay more than two meters away from them, so that the adults will not have time to react when danger occurs.

3. Create a safe environment: Within the reach of the walker, dangerous environments or equipment should be avoided, such as table corners, tea cups and tablecloths on the table, or buckets and trash cans. If there are stairs in the home, fences should also be installed.

4. Take a break every ten minutes: It is recommended that the time a child spends in a walker should not exceed ten minutes at a time. In addition to avoiding overuse of the feet, it also reduces the situation where parents begin to ignore or not pay attention to their children's behavior because of habit.

5. It is recommended that the total time spent in a walker should not exceed two hours a day, because excessive time in a walker will reduce the child's opportunities to practice other motor skills.

Finally, it is emphasized that the walker is only an auxiliary equipment and cannot replace the position of parental companionship. It is recommended that parents should still try to have opportunities to play with their children every day, rather than just sitting on the sofa and watching their children push the walker around!