Study Shows a Surge in Nursery Product Injuries

A news report published by USA Today shows that there is a marked increase in the number of injuries caused by defective nursery products all over the country. At present, over 66,000 kids under the age of 3 are taken to emergency rooms every year due to accidents that involve nursery products.

One research conducted by the Nationwide Children’s Hospital which was published in the Pediatrics Journal assessed emergency room visits in the course of 21 years, from January 1991 to December 2011. The study revealed that there’s been a 25% increase in nursery product-related injuries in the last eight years of the study. These products include baby walkers, strollers, bouncers, changing tables and many others. Further, it was found that in about 80% of those cases, the child fell out of the product, resulting in an injury.

Findings of Injury Study

The main objective of the study was to make manufacturers accountable for the design flaws of their products. The following are its most salient findings:

• The most common injuries (20%) occurred with baby carriers, followed by mattresses/cribs (10%), and strollers (17%).

• Majority of the accidents (81%) caused injuries to the head, neck and face.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital researcher, Tracy Mehan, told USA Today that injuries could have been prevented had the product manufacturers designed them in a way that make them easier to use. The Nationwide Children Hospital’s Center for Injury Research and Policy back in 2001 outlined the design flaws of baby walkers which prompted manufacturers to change the design of their products, including changing the wheels and widening the walkers to make them more difficult for young children to roll down the stairs.

What You Can Do for Help

As with most things, any change at industry level will take time. But there are things you can do as a parent to keep your child safe.

• To start with, you should check if the product you want to buy has been recalled. The best place to look up product recalls is the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s website (cpsc.gov).

• Next, you should be extra careful when buying used products. For instance, it’s dangerous to use a crib that was manufactured prior to June 2011. New safety standards have been implemented after this period. Used car seats are also not recommended because prior accidents may weaken the effectiveness of these products.

• Make sure to register your product to ensure that you will be notified in case the product will be recalled, or if there’s any problem with it.

• Finally, you need to thoroughly read the product manual so you’ll know how to properly assemble and use the product.

If you have an issue where you or a loved one got injured due to a bad product, make sure you give us a call for help.