After our prata breakfast this morning, Fuzzy and I decided it was time to let Chubbs try out his walker since he can sit stably without assistance now. We have a couple of hand-me-downs from his twin cousins, and I cleaned it out months ago in preparation for this big day.
Chubbs is a natural at it (have you seen the size of those thighs?) and scooted around backwards from the get-go, causing major dents in some furniture already :/ Without doubt, he was extremely thrilled by his first vehicle and was beaming the whole time driving it.
"Woopdeedoo!"He soon realised that he can scoot around with one leg too. According to my folks, I was an expert at this when I was a baby. I was a one-legged scooter too :/ Ok Low-Gong, I take full responsibility for this.
"Why use two legs when you can use one?"
Then he decided to go without hands too.
The new found freedom allowed him some time to explore the house on his own. He used it wisely to check out the scene outside the window.
It was a fun-filled 15-minutes. But before we get carried away, I need to state some unfriendly facts about baby walkers. As of 2004, Canada has banned the sale of baby walkers. And there's a good reason for this. UK surveys reported that more accidents happen with baby walkers than any other nursery equipment, mainly because babies can zoom up to one meter per second in them. Moreover, walkers, despite what the name suggests, don't help babies walk. Many paediatricians call it a developmental hindrance and studies have shown that infants on the walker start walking weeks later than their peers who go walker-free. To encourage babies to walk, it's more crucial that you allow them to roll, sit and crawl on the floor freely. Some websites also write that walker-babies tend to inherit a special gait when they first start walking. But this will eventually go away when the walker is phased out.
So why are we giving Chubbs the walker? We don't believe in urm... extremitism, so Fuzzy and I concluded that we will only allow Chubbs to sit in his walker when we can supply extra vigilant supervision, i.e. both of us watching him without distraction, and limiting the time Chubbs uses it to 15-minutes, probably once a week. More than anything else, we want to give him the independence and freedom to move around (in a baby-proofed area) and do what he fancies, within reason of course.
