Infants’ High Chair Accidents on the Increase
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ffolas/Thinkstock(COLUMBUS, Ohio) — Every hour on average, a child’s injury from falling out of a high chair requires a trip to the emergency room, according to a study from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.
Co-author Dr. Gary Smith says there were 10,930 accidents of this kind in the U.S. by 2010, an increase of 22 percent from 2003, which he called “alarming.”
Worst of all, says Smith, most of the injured youngsters are under the age of 1, and 85 percent of the injuries treated by ER docs occur to the infants’ heads and faces.
Smith also noted in the study published in Clinical Pediatrics that about two-thirds of the falls from high chairs or booster chairs happen when the child is either standing or getting into the seat.
The reason for the increase in high chair accidents can be traced to restraints that either don’t work as they should or parents who aren’t fastening them properly.
Smith’s advice to parents, “Use the restraint, use the restraint, use the restraint!”
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