KANSAS
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH & ENVIRONMENT
BILL GRAVES, GOVERNOR
Gary R. Mitchell, Secretary
For Immediate Release
September 9, 1998
Contact: Jan Stegelman
785-296-1223
Babies and Wheels Can be a Dangerous Mix
Despite continued warnings from physicians and safety advocates about the dangers of baby walkers, parents of 90 percent of children under age 2 still use them. As a result, nearly 20,000 children are treated in emergency rooms each year for baby walker-related injuries. 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.
"Even if a parent is close by to supervise, a walker greatly increases a child's chances of falling--especially around an open stairway," said Jan Stegelman, Coordinator of the Kansas SAFE KIDS Coalition. "Nearly half of the children who use the walkers get injured."
The majority of children with baby walker- related injuries fall down stairs (80 percent) and many sustain head injuries serious enough to require hospitalization. Other injuries occur when a child tips over in the walker, pulls down hot liquid or food, ingests poisonous substances, suffocates or drowns, due to increased mobility. "Parents think their child is safe in a walker as long as they are close by," said Stegelman. "In more than half of all baby walker injuries,
parents or care givers were in the same room with the child when the injury occurred."
The Kansas SAFE KIDS Coalition recommends that babies not use baby walkers with wheels. Instead, the Coalition recommends stationary activity centers or walker alternatives which allow a child to spin or rotate without wheels. Infants should be supervised at all times.
The Kansas SAFE KIDS Coalition, Inc. is a nonprofit group of 60 statewide organizations and businesses that have joined to protect Kansas children from unintentional injury--the leading killer of Kansas kids. Local coalitions and chapters are located in Wichita, Lawrence, Johnson County, Salina, Barber County, Topeka, Ford County, Manhattan, Pottawatomie County, and Clay County. Kansas SAFE KIDS is part of the National SAFE KIDS Campaign.
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