Consumer Reports is calling for a federal ban of infant walkers, saying the products injure thousands of babies every year despite federal safety standards that have slowed — but not stopped — heartbreaking incidents for parents.
The consumer advocacy group’s stark warning, along with its newly published report detailing injuries and deaths caused by baby walkers, comes two decades after Canada banned them after investigating serious pediatric injuries from falls by infants using the products.
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) in 2018 also pushed for a ban, stating that walkers do not help babies learn to walk and in fact can delay normal motor and mental development.
“One thing that’s really not well understood by the public in general is just how fast infants can travel in these walkers — multiple feet per second,” Dr. James Dodington, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor, told CR. “The risks are numerous,” the physician added, noting that, beyond head and neck injuries, babies can be burned by coming into contact with a hot stove or inadvertently rolling into a pool or other body of water.
Over the years manufacturers have voluntarily tightened safety standards, while the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2010 mandated brakes on the baby walkers to prevent falls down staircases. But these steps only succeeded in slowing the rate of injuries, with thousands of kids still treated in hospital emergency rooms every year.
From 1990 to 2014, nearly 231,000 U.S. children below the age of 15 months were treated in ERs for infant walker-related injuries, most sustaining head or neck injuries and nearly two-thirds of the incidents involving falls down stairs, according to 2018 research from AAP. Injuries fell nearly 23% during the four-year period after the federal safety standard took effect, yet thousands of kids are still injured every year.
“Because there is no clear benefit from their use, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends a ban on the manufacture and sale of mobile infant walkers,” AAP stated.
Between 2021 and 2023, an average of 2,467 children per year under age 5 ended up in the ER after using baby walkers, jumpers or exercisers, according to the CPSC’s 2024 nursery products report, citing data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System.
Asked for comment about Consumer Reports’ call for a baby walker ban, a spokesperson for the CPSC said the agency’s staff “constantly review incident data with a view toward ensuring that standards continue to address product hazards. To the extent that staff recommend additional improvements to the mandatory standard, the commission will consider how best to act on those recommendations.”
