Walking vs. the walker

Yesterday, my husband made the following suggestion: Let's get a walker for the baby. Even though the older child had a walker when she was a baby, I had some reservations about doing a repeat with Kid #2. Being a mom for going on 7 years, I am a little more wiser now (at least, I try to be!), and I have heard so many pros and cons about putting babies into walkers. One side said they're helpful to babies trying to learn how to stand up, the other side says they slow a baby's ability to learn how to walk.

I told my husband my concerns and he said we could just look into it before actually buying one. I started to wonder if he's ever come across any of those articles or websites I have read which have explained those very same pros and cons of putting a baby into a walker. But then again, not every expert's advice is right for every single baby. Everyone is different, and what one expert says could be bad could actually be harmless.

At nearly 10 months of age, my son is trying to learn how to walk. There have been times he's tried to stand up on his own (and ended up falling down in the process), but he is definitely working on this walking thing. At this point, he is cruising along furniture and trying to balance himself while standing against the bookcase. Fortunately, he has figured out how to fall on his bottom when he loses his balance, but he has not yet been able to stand up on his own.

Added to this is the turns we all take in helping him walk. We'll hold his hands and gently support him as he takes one wobbly step after another across the room or from one person to another.

Still, I'm not so sure about using a walker to help him learn how to walk. Even with a walker or even a playstation, Jennifer learned how to walk on her own just fine, right around the time she was a year old. And when we were looking at some walkers yesterday, I was satisfied that some of them are not the same old walkers we older folks grew up with. The newer walkers on the market these days are more flexible, roomy, and allow children to actually try to move independently. (A couple of them even had a bouncy seat.)

All the same, my gut tells me that the best way for Jesse to learn how to walk is to just put him on the floor. Let him exercise those arm and leg muscles and work on keeping his balance. He already tries to stand up and he is getting a handle on this cruising business really well. But that doesn't mean I'd be 100% against putting him into a walker every now and then. As long as it's not for an extended period of time. I think it might be best for him to be on the floor more often than in a walker.

But, then again, that's just my uneducated opinion.

It might be best to discuss my concerns with his doctor and see where we should go from there.