[blparent] walkers/ jumpers/ ????

Sun May 6 05:55:06 UTC 2012

I've heard that the best thing you can do with a walker is take the wheels 
off so that it is basically a stationary activity center.  Walkers give 
babies more mobility than they are ready for.

Anyway, I agree with Erin, after a few minutes Sarah would want to get out 
and crawl around.  So jumpers are handy for that very brief time of babyhood 
before the baby is too mobile to put up with them.

Jo Elizabeth

"How far you go in life depends on you being tender with the young, 
compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving, and tolerant of 
the weak and the strong.  Because someday in life you will have been all of 
these."--George Washington Carver, 1864-1943, American scientist

--------------------------------------------------
From: "Erin Rumer" <erinrumer at gmail.com>
Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 11:43 PM
To: "'Blind Parents Mailing List'" <blparent at nfbnet.org>
Subject: Re: [blparent] walkers/ jumpers/ ????

> Hello Jan,
>
> To be perfectly honest with you I never liked the idea of the doorway
> jumpers because they always frightened me since it could malfunction and
> fall with the baby inside of it.  Those jumpers often times have a 25lbs
> capacity.  I would definitely encourage your baby's jumping with a free
> standing jumper that is stationary and allows the baby to jump and spin in
> one place with a variety of toys and activities around them.  My son
> absolutely loved his and it was one of the best $$ I ever spent.  You can
> find these stationary jumpers at resale shops for a very reasonable price 
> or
> even garage sales, but just make sure the condition is really good if you 
> go
> this route.  The stationary jumpers can come with a saucer under the baby
> and this is usually called an exersaucer or they can come with legs-arms
> attached with springs to both sides of the seat and play-station allowing
> baby to push off of the floor with their feet.  I had both of these types
> and liked them for different reasons.  I had the jumper that baby can jump
> in and push off the floor in my down-stairs and this particular jumper
> allowed my son to get more bounce when he pushed off the floor.  I could
> also add toys to the arms on either side of the seat he was in for added
> entertainment.  The exersaucer style jumper was something I kept upstairs 
> in
> our bedroom and used it mostly when I was in the bathroom taking a shower 
> to
> keep my son entertained.  This jumper was something my son liked a lot as
> well but he couldn't get much bounce from it.  He could still spin around 
> in
> his seat like in the other jumper though and play with the different
> activities around him.  I did like the saucer style jumper for when my son
> had explosion diapers because it contained the mess and didn't allow the
> poop to go onto the floor.  I paid $50 for the saucer style jumper at a
> resale store and it was in like now condition and the other nicer jumper
> with more bounce and easier turn radius for $90 new with gift cards I
> received from my baby shower.  Both of these jumpers also allow baby to 
> rock
> back and forth which is very stimulating to them.  I do know folks that 
> have
> had the doorway jumpers like what you have and they were okay with them 
> but
> I've also heard of them falling from the door frame down onto baby or baby
> getting their hands pinched in the door jam while playing.  I also thought
> they would be annoying as well because it's something that you'd always 
> have
> to deal with pushing to the side every time you go through that particular
> door.  That's just my two sense on that.
>
> As for the walkers, I did have one for my son but in looking back it's
> something I never would have wasted my money on.  My pediatrician spoke
> strongly against them because she said that tons of kids end up in the
> emergency room each year from falling over in them, even the ones with 
> "wide
> bases".  My pediatrician told me that even more than head injuries, babies
> usually break an arm when falling in the walker because of the force and
> wait of the walker hitting the ground.  Since I already had the darn thing
> when my son's pediatrician told me all of this, I made sure to be 
> completely
> hands-on when my son was in the walker and I often times just used it like
> the exersaucer I was talking about above in that I'd just keep it in the
> bathroom and let my son play in it while I was taking a shower.  This way 
> he
> couldn't move at all in it since the cabinets were right behind him and
> there was nowhere to turn with it in the bathroom.  There have been
> controversies about kids muscle development when using a walker but I've
> read that this is mostly for kids that spend a lot of time in walkers
> compared to kids who are moving around freely thus using all their muscles
> in different ways.  My son never liked walking around in his walker 
> anyways
> except for moving backwards for a short amount of time but as soon as he
> played with the toys in front of him for a couple of minutes he always
> wanted out and to just crawl around and be free.  I found that the jumpers 
> I
> had were much nicer because my son used those from the time he was about 
> 4/5
> months to close to a year.  The more mobile he became with crawling, the
> less time he wanted to be stationary in anything.  As my son got older he
> liked his jumpers the most when I needed to put him some ware safe to 
> vacuum
> or something while he watched a short educational video.
>
> Hope all this helps.
>
> Erin
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of jan wright
> Sent: Saturday, May 05, 2012 10:00 PM
> To: blparent
> Subject: [blparent] walkers/ jumpers/ ????
>
> Hi All,
> I have not thought about walkers or jumpers (they hang from the door and
> your lo sits in it and jumps) for years. I would not have bought such 
> clunky
> things, but again, my sister found one for me. I thought that I wouldn't 
> use
> it, but, I don't know. As my little one seems to like to jump lots, I am
> tempted.
> But, I have some questions first.
> 1. we have the jumping thing, not the walker, but are there any studies
> saying that this jumping thing is not good for a child's feet, etc? And,
> weren't there studies saying that a walker actually "didn't"
> help a child walk better )? (just in case my mother finds one at a garage
> sale).
> 2. Because my sister got this jumping thing from a friend, I don't have 
> the
> documentation. so, at what age should a child be using it?
> Should your child's knees be at a 90degree angle when sitting? What are 
> the
> other cautions, instructions, etc?. I'd look it up myself, but I don't 
> even
> know what that jumping thing is called. It hangs from a door frame and has 
> a
> bunjy cord in cased in plastic and then the seat.
> thanks for any help.
> Jan
>
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