But I did want to take a quick pause to talk about something that has come up a couple times when we talk about walking delays and infants. As you've probably figured out by now, we are a "crunchy" family- meaning that we try to do things as naturally as possible, time or money allowing. One of those things that we do to be earth-friendly is using cloth diapers. We have used cloth since Sophia was about 7 weeks old, and she has been almost exclusively cloth diapered since about 13 weeks old (exceptions were made on vacations! haha!)
At Sophia's Birth to Three Evaluation, in which they determine if your family is eligible for services ( and I will talk about much more in the next post), the evaluator commented on Sophia's diapers, only because they made her have the appearance of a bowed back (if any of you out there CD: she was wearing an AppleCheeks! Imagine if she was wearing a Rumparooz! ha!) When it was determined that Sophia would be receiving Physical Therapy from Birth to Three (abbreviated B23 from now on) her therapist requested that we use disposable diapers during the therapy hour.
As I'm sure you've heard your grandmother tell you, cloth diapers have been around for a long time- disposables are still a relatively new invention. And everybody learned to walk just fine.
There has been some research done, and while there needs to be more - much more- done in the future, it is an interesting theory.
Dirty Diaper Laundry (a cloth diaper blog) posted a study discussing this topic ( http://dirtydiaperlaundry.com/do-cloth-diapers-delay-walking-in-infants/ ). DDL is a great resource to read if you are interested learning more about cloth diapers!
The DDL blog references this study done at NYU: Go Naked. The abstract explains: "Diapers introduce bulk between the legs, potentially exacerbating infants’ poor balance and wide stance. We show that walking is adversely affected
by old-fashioned cloth diapers, and that even modern disposable diapers—habitually worn by
most infants in the sample—incur a cost relative to walking naked. Infants displayed less mature
gait patterns and more missteps and falls while wearing diapers. Thus, infants’ own diapers
constitute an on-going biomechanical perturbation while learning to walk."Sophia wears a style of cloth diaper called "pockets" for the most part. Most of these modern cloth diaper companies pride themselves on being "trim" (less bulky) while still be absorbent. It is my belief that her diapers have little or no effect on her ability to walk.
In summary, "This study does show that wearing diapers has an affect on walking in the short term but cannot prove that this does anything except set them back a a few weeks in skill. As parents we all want what is the best for our children. According to this study being naked is the best!" -- which I'm sure we can all agree on! :-)
It is also worth noting that the above-mentioned study was sponsored by P&G, the manufacturer of Pampers and Luvs disposable diapers.
Recently, I bought a month's worth of disposable diapers to test this theory. At first, Sophia did seem to be more mobile in the "sposies". She was taking a few independent steps at the time. She has since regressed and hasn't been walking on her own for a couple weeks now. In our personal experience, it doesn't seem to matter what kind of diaper she has on- it's more likely that the weather or the phases of the moon are factors at this point!! She will only "walk" (take a step or two) when she is entirely comfortable in her surroundings and abilities.
EDIT: a friend in the Cloth Diaper community analyzed this article and wrote her findings. It's a great read to help keep things in perspective! Check it out at Cloth Diaper Guru.
What do you think? Do you think the cloth vs. disposable debate has any weight when we are talking about learning to walk?
My 10 month old is walking, and she is cloth diapered 100%.
ReplyDeleteI wish I remembered the citation, but I also read an article on walking delays and diapering. The study found all diapers (cloth or disposable) caused walking delays. Most people can't let their kids go naked all the time, so walking delay is just something that's going to happen. Our daughter was a late walker (14 months) but she was also a late crawler (10 months). Her cousin who was also 100% cloth diapered crawled and walked very early. I think it just depends on the kid. I noticed our daughter struggled more in a disposable diaper because she wasn't used to them: the "crunch" of the plastic really bothered her and she would move even less in them.
ReplyDeleteHere's my take on it, and this might sound very simplistic, but here goes. While the theory that having any type of material between the legs will hinder a baby is an interesting one....going naked while learning to walk is neither ideal nor practical. And I don't think God intended it that way. Imagine an Eskimo family. Their toddlers can't walk around naked, and are probably well-padded because of the frigid conditions, yet I doubt there is a high level of walking delays in this culture.
ReplyDeleteAnother thing I thought of. All babies, when they are first learning to walk, take those exaggerated "high" steps, almost as if they are march. They NATURALLY start out with poor balance and a wider stance. Again, this is God's handiwork. Their falls and missteps are an important learning experience. It's not something I think parents in any culture need to be worried about.
And that's my two cents! ~Anne
My son was walking at 9 months and is pretty much running and he isn't quite 11 months. I think each child is different.
ReplyDelete