USA : AAP suggests shopping cart limitations for children
August 8, 2006 |  |
As shopping cart-related injuries are common and can result in severe injury or even death, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that parents consider alternatives to placing children in shopping carts, until carts are redesigned to prevent injury.
In 2005, more than 24,000 children were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms for shopping cart-related injuries. Most of these injuries occurred when a child fell from a shopping cart, the cart tipped over, the child became entrapped in the cart, or the child fell while riding on the outside of the cart, according to the new policy statement, "Shopping Cart-Related Injuries to Children."
Injuries to the head and neck accounted for 74 percent of shopping cart-related injuries among children younger than 15. Of the 4 percent of children treated in an emergency room for a shopping cart injury, more than 93 percent were under age 5.
With the potential instability of some existing shopping cart designs, and because it is difficult for a parent to easily ascertain a cart's safety simply by looking at it, parents should carefully consider the potential for injury before placing a child in a shopping cart, according to the policy.
Instead of putting children in shopping carts, parents can try one of the following alternatives:
Get another adult to come with them to watch the children while shopping.
Put children in strollers, wagons, or frontpacks instead of in shopping carts.
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