Every 8 minutes, a baby is injured because of a nursery product, U.S. study warns

You baby-proof your home to keep your little one out of harm’s way, but what about the crib, bedding and stroller? A new U.S. study is warning that every eight minutes, a baby is being treated in hospital for a nursery-related injury.

That’s roughly 66,000 children under three years old in the emergency department each year, according to new research out of Nationwide Children’s Hospital in the U.S.

The study is based on data spanning 21 years going back to 1991. It warns that in the past eight years, the number of nursery product-related injuries steadily rose, to the tune of a whopping 25 per cent.

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Their estimates suggest that 1,391,844 babies and toddlers were at the ER over the course of two decades for injuries involving baby products.

“We have achieved great success in preventing baby walker-related injuries by improving the design of the product and instituting better safety standards,” Dr. Gary Smith, the study’s lead author, said.

Baby walkers are banned in Canada but are still in use in the U.S. and other countries.

WATCH: Study finds a baby is injured every 8 minutes because of a nursery product. Erica Vella reports.

1:59 A baby is injured every 8 minutes because of a nursery product: study

“We now need to aggressively apply this approach to other nursery products. It is unacceptable that we are still seeing so many injuries to young children from these products,” Smith said.

Baby carriers caused the most injuries (20 per cent), followed by cribs and mattresses (19 per cent), and strollers and carriages (17 per cent). Injuries happened the most at home, and 80 per cent of the time it was a fall.

The majority of injuries were to babies’ heads, faces and necks.

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Patterns are the same in Canada, too, according to Matthew Aymar, a spokesperson at Parachute Canada, a charity focusing on keeping Canadians safe.

“What we’re seeing in the U.S. is similar to what we’re seeing here in Canada and we’re specifically concerned with some of the products they talked about in the study…We know here in Canada over the last 10 years, we’ve seen about 37 deaths related to unsafe cribs so some of the issues and messaging that parents need to be aware about is important,” he told Global News.

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“It can be a combination of issues. Quite often products can be old. The majority of those cribs we saw children dying in were from before 1986 – Health Canada doesn’t regulate cribs from before 1986,” he explained.

There are ways parents can be careful, though. The study is recommending families follow the 4 Rs:

Research: Before bringing a new nursery product into your home, go online and look at product reviews and information from trusted organizations. Those sites include: Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Healthy Children, Make Safe Happen and the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission or CPSC.

READ MORE: ‘Educational’ products don’t make babies smarter, Canadian study suggests

Check for recalls: Look at Health Canada’s database and search the products you’re thinking of bringing home to see if they’ve been recalled. You can even sign up for alerts for future recalls.

Register your product: When you bring a new product home, register your purchase with the manufacturer. That way, if it’s recalled, you’ll be notified immediately. With baby products, there’s usually a postcard with the packaging or you can register on the company’s website.

Read the manual: Comb through the product manual before you use it so you know how the product works, when to lock it, when to buckle, where to use it, and where not to use it.

• With files from Erica Vella, Global News

carmen.chai@globalnews.ca
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