Baby walkers have been implicated in many forms of paediatric trauma,
ranging from finger tip entrapment to severe head injury. Their relati
onship to childhood burns has been documented previously. The Departme
nt of Trade and Industry published further warnings in 1984 and the Br
itish Standards Institution in 1989. We wished to determine if the deg
ree or frequency of thermal injury had been lessened by these recommen
dations. All parents of children under 15 months of age admitted to th
is unit in 1994 were asked if their child was in a baby walker at the
time of injury. Eight of the 32 infants, aged between 6 and 12 months,
were burned in their walking Rid. Half of the burns were contact and
half scalds, and the average in-patient stay was 8 days. One patient r
equired formal resuscitation and three were grafted. The incidence and
severity of thermal injury sustained in baby walkers remains at a hig
h level despite increased safety measures. Perhaps it is time to concu
r with the American Academy of Paediatrics and recommend a bait on the
se dangerous aids. (C) 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd for ISBI. All rights
reserved.