Stair injuries report: Every six minutes, U.S. child falls
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(CBS News) Every six minutes, an American child under the age of 5 falls down the stairs and is rushed to the hospital.
That's the latest from the first nationally representative review of stair-related injuries in children. The report found nearly 932,000 children younger than 5 were sent to the emergency room between 1999 and 2008 - that's nearly 100,000 kids per year treated for falling down the stairs.
"What that tells us is that we have much more that we need to do to make the home environment safer for children," study author Dr. Gary A. Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, told The New York Times. "Children under 5 spend most of their time in the home, and even the best parent in the world can't watch their child 100 percent of the time. It just simply isn't possible."
The number could be even higher, the researchers warn, considering the data only tracks children sent to emergency rooms.
"We know it's an underestimation because we're not catching all of the cases," Smith told USA Today.
About a quarter of injuries to children one years old and younger occurred when a parent or caretaker was carrying the child - these injuries were more than 3 times as likely to result in hospitalization. Overall, 2.7 percent of children who fell down stairs were hospitalized.
More than a third of the injured children suffered soft-tissue injuries, which are bumps and bruises. Nearly three-quarters of children had injuries to the head and neck region. A recent study found head injuries in children can be especially problematic, and cause lingering symptoms that impair their daily lives for up to 12 months.
The good news overall is that the number of stair injuries per year declined 11.6 percent from 1999 to 2008, the last time data was taken. In 1999, 53 per 10,000 kids had stair-related injuries, in 2008 the number fell to 42.4 per 10,000 kids. The study is published online in the March 12 issue of Pediatrics.What can be done to make stairs safer for kids?
The researchers suggest installing gates at the top and bottom of the stairs, keeping stairs clutter-free, and installing and using railings. When carrying a child, avoid carrying other items, the researchers said. They also cite the need for some staircases to be redesigned with children in mind, utilizing smaller railings that small children could grab onto.
Smith told Reuters, "It is the exception to the rule that a home won't have a young child living in it or visiting" at some point.
WebMD has more tips for preventing falls in the home.
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While I acknowledge the desire to protect your children from harm all the time, children will be children and you will never be able to keep an eye on them 100% of the time. Children will get hurt, but at the same time they will learn valuable lessons. When you sterilize the environment where children grow, you keep children from learning basic harsh life lessons, sometimes all the way to adult age. The most valuable lessons that one learns are those that hurt the most.
I used to play with a chemistry set, tinkered with electronics, and ran around like crazy. Out of that I had very close encounters with disfiguring my face, I'd get shocked every once in a while, and eventually received some very nasty cuts. But I learned valuable lessons about being more careful while doing something potentially dangerous.
This article is somewhat absurd not only because we already had an idea that staircases were dangerous to children, but because it's not even worth mentioning it. Seriously, just teach your children to be careful, and invest in stair gates.
But all I see is the evidence that the worries of this first world country are far too excessive. This also reflects in our dependence of having the Government "take care of us". If this article really wanted its readers to feel protective towards children, why not make an article about how thousands of children per minute are dying a horrible, horrible death by murder, hunger, disease, natural disasters, animal attacks, abuse, and suicide. Maybe it's because most of these things don't happen much in the U.S. where everyone is sheltered, inside the great american bubble.
Out of sight, out of mind I guess.