We too were told here in Bulgaria, that walkers can delay walking. We don't have a walker as we don't have enough room, we the one which goes around a central activity station, great, she just goes round and round, but she is getting faster. I have actually tried to tip it up whilst she's been in it, obviously I have hold of her, but need her weight to see what the chances are. Highly unlikely to happen but nothing is 100% so I don't trust anything totally. She does go in it quite a bit, but I also have her on floor, tummy quite a bit too. She's very active. She wants to be up all the time, standing with our help, no interest in crawling at all, just wants to be up!
I don't see why they should be banned, maybe redesigned, after all, research is done all the time and we learn something new every day. Babies love to be up and about but we wouldn't get anything done at all if we didn't have walkers, etc. I think nas long as you are sensible, I don't see what the problem is.
Gabbi is actually walking better after being in the round about walker. She pushes her bum out of the seat to walk, so she is, in a sense, taking her own weight. She's also taking an interest in reaching for the top of the cot and trying to pull herself up. Oh she's growing so fast, but that's another subject!!
I do agree with someone who said in an earlier post about crawling being dangerous. Gabbi is more like a seal, pushes up on arms and moves that way on her belly, funny. But within seconds, she is next to the table, or the comp0uter, or the fireplace, scares the hell out of me, she's so quick.