03 Dec Thinking of buying a Jolly Jumper for your baby or perhaps you have been using a Jolly Jumper for your baby

Would you still use a Jolly Jumper if you knew they were harmful to your baby’s development

Here at My Favourite Physio, our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists see many babies and toddlers to help them learn to move better and learn to walk. One of the baby items which we strongly discourage parents from using for their baby is a Jolly Jumper.

Here are the 3 Top Reasons to avoid Jolly Jumpers:
1. Delayed gross motor development in infants
Jolly jumpers encourage babies to jump and spring off their toes while supported in a frame. This does not allow for the natural development of body control, balance and strength needed for crawling, sitting and independent walking which babies learn when placed on the floor to play. There is evidence to show that infants who use Jolly Jumpers repeatedly for 15 minutes or longer are delayed in achieving independent walking.

2. Increased risk of injuries.
Jolly Jumpers are also unsafe and are a primary cause of household accidents to young children including burns and falls. Infants using Jolly Jumpers have sustained injuries when the baby in the Jolly Jumper has lurched sideways into the doorway frame, or has been pushed by another young child. Injuries in Jolly Jumpers has also occurred when the laces have snapped under the tension of a bouncing baby and caused them to fall.

3. Increased incidence of toe walking.
Jolly Jumpers encourage extensor patterns that are opposite to flexion patterns required to develop the skills of rolling, sitting, crawling and walking. These extensor movement patterns delay the onset of walking and encourage tiptoe walking. Once toe walking becomes a learned adaptive movement pattern, it results in tight calf muscles, loss of ankle range of movement that leads to problems with running, balance and coordination as a child grows up.

If you are concerned about your baby’s gross motor skills development or have noticed that your child is toe walking, ring us on (02) 9790 4233 or DM us @myfavouritephysio to speak to one of our Expert Paediatric Physiotherapists  today.