Slide safety
A new study has found a relationship between young children going down a slide on the lap of an adult and tibia fractures. The study, conducted at Winthrop University Hospital, reviewed children with tibia fractures over an 11-month period and found 13.8% of the tibia fractures were sustained while sliding down a slide on an adult’s lap.
“The correlation between a young child sliding down a slide while in an adult’s lap hasn’t previously been related to fractures of the tibia,” explains study author John T Gaffney, DO, an orthopedic surgeon specializing in pediatrics in New York. “Many parents think it is actually safer to hold their toddler while going down a playground slide, but this study may prove otherwise,” he adds.
Typically, injuries sustained in Dr Gaffney’s study happened when a young child was in an adult’s lap while sliding and placed their leg in a position where it became fixed, while both the adult and child continued moving down the slide; or in other cases, the child’s leg became twisted, creating a torque that led to a fracture in the lower extremity.
All tibia fractures associated with playing on a slide were sustained while going down the slide on the lap of an adult or older sibling. The age range of patients who sustained a tibia fracture while going down a slide was 14 months to 32 months.
Joan Mescall’s son Gavin was part of Dr Gaffney’s study. Gavin was 14 months at the time of his tibia fracture, just one year ago. “You think you are doing the right thing, and then you realize you contributed to this accident,” says Mescall. “Once a week I see a parent doing this at the park and I try to warn them,” she adds.
“Parents of the patients in this study, just like Joan, were dismayed and frustrated at the lack of public awareness that such a common practice could cause, not prevent, an injury,” says Gaffney. “Although going down the slide with a child on your lap may seem like an enjoyable moment for both, it can be putting them in danger.
“As a pediatric orthopedic surgeon I want to prevent injuries, not just treat them, and if we can prevent just one toddler from sustaining a leg fracture, we are doing our job,” he adds.
The study is published in the
Journal of Pediatric Orthopedics.