Thursday, January 10, 2013

Safer Child Products


Wintertime often makes it challenging to find activities to do with our kids to keep them active.  For some it is too cold to play outside or not enough snow to play in.  Something that has become popular in our area is “bounce” type places.  There are big warehouses with several blow up mazes and bouncing castles.  The industry has come a long way since the small moon-bounce that would be set up at carnivals.  I always thought this was clever and a relatively safe indoor activity option.  Then I saw the article in the journal Pediatrics Volume 130, Number 6, December 2012.
This article is about Inflatable Bouncer-Related Injuries.  When I first saw this, I imagined that the injuries would be foot and ankle related from landing wrong, but in fact they reported upper extremity fractures were most common relating to collisions.  From reading this article, and looking at how significantly the number of injuries has increased, I infer it is related to the increase and popularity of these bouncy places. 
Like with any other sport or activity, there is risk of injury.  Set some ground rules for your children, like only one person on the slide a time, and limit how many people in the bouncy castle at a time.  
Have a safe and Happy New Year!

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