Diapers May Hinder Walking in Babies?? 

What do you Think?

 

Most babies wear diapers and now they are saying that these diapers trap more than just waste, they may also be confining your baby’s ability to walk.


This is the information from the actual study that was conducted.

Scientists compared the walking gaits of 60 babies who were either naked, wore a thin disposable diaper or a thick cloth diaper. Half the babies were 13-month old novice walkers and the other half 19-month old experienced walkers.

When the 30 13-month olds walked naked only 10 fell, but while wearing the cloth diaper 21 of them fell, and while wearing the disposable 17 of them fell. Among the 19-month olds only 4 fell while naked or wearing disposables, while 8 fell when wearing cloth diapers. But both age groups took wider and shorter steps while wearing diapers as opposed to walking naked. The research is in the journal Developmental Science. [Whitney G. Cole, Jesse M. Lingeman and Karen E. Adolph, Go naked: diapers affect infant walking]

Because the effects were immediate, this study cannot predict if wearing diapers has a long-term impact. Nonetheless the researchers believe walking naked would speed up walking development. But then we are left with the issue of covering the entire house in plastic and relying heavily on the child’s ability to communicate his or her elimination intentions.


So, I guess my question is, do we run out and buy tons of plastic to lay on our floors? Or, do we avoid the emergency room because our baby slipped on the plastic and hit his/her head on the coffee table and now has an open wound. Or do we just accept the fact that our babies will not be walking at 1 year of age.