[blparent] walkers/ jumpers/ ????

Thu May 3 16:48:20 UTC 2012

I did like my doorway jumper for one place. With baby 3 we had an upstairs
laundry room that was retro fitted into a small closet off of the upstairs
landing. I did like popping the baby into the jumper because he was right
there with me. Though I had it shortened up so it just hung there and he
could make it swing with his body, but he could not touch the floor. The
area in the closet was so small that it really was extra difficult with him
in any carrier.

I had to take it down though when my two year old decided it was a swing for
him and it became a battle to keep him off of it.

Now we did get a lot of use out of the walker though. I too often set the
breaks so it was just a stationary piece, but I also let them roll when I
was cleaning house because they just loved to follow me around. It never
went upstairs though.

Jennifer

-----Original Message-----
From: blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blparent-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
Behalf Of Erin Rumer
Sent: Sunday, May 06, 2012 12:44 AM
To: 'Blind Parents Mailing List'
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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