Increase in Infant & Child Head Injuries Sees Rise in Traumatic Brain Injuries (TBI)
Every eight minutes a child under the age of three is injured in an accident. Most often these accidents involve baby products. A new study from the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital found that infant carriers – including carriers worn on the body and car seat-style carriers, crib bedding, and strollers were the causes of more than 1.4 million pediatric injuries over the study’s 21-year-period.
With an average of 66,000 injuries per year and an increasing rise in infant head injuries, researchers at the Center say the numbers are disturbing and surprising to find so many injuries still occurring.
Eighty percent of the injuries studied were caused by a child falling from a product malfunctioning or accident using the product – resulting in nearly half of the children with a head or neck injury. Concussion and traumatic brain injury rates have recently doubled for stroller-related injuries and tripled for those associated with carriers.
Prevent Head Injuries In Your Children
The Lee Steinberg Law Firm want to help you keep your family safe while using carriers, bedding, and strollers with your children. Here are some helpful tips to review prior to using these products.
- Infant Carriers: Buckle your child when they are in a carrier. If you set a car-seat style carrier down, make sure it’s some place low, so it won’t knock over. If you are wearing a body carrier know that a fall from chest height is very dangerous. Babies should be held close, and provided support for head and neck.
- Bedding: Have a mattress that is the right size for the crib so that the infant can’t roll over and get their head stuck. Use a crib manufactured after 2011, when safety standards improved. In addition, the American Academy of Pediatrics, says bedding like bumpers have actually not been proven to prevent injury to a newborn but instead increase a baby’s risk of neck injuries or even strangulation.
- Strollers: A malfunctioning stroller can unlock and the baby can fall out. Only use strollers suitable for your child’s age, height, and weight and newborn strollers should recline, since these children can’t hold up their heads. Choose a stroller with restraining belts, including a 5-point harness. Leg openings should be small enough to prevent an infant from slipping through. Close the opening between the grab bar and the seat when using the stroller in the reclined position to avoid trapping your baby’s head.
Keeping Products Safe
Researching products through a trusted organization can help prevent child injuries as they provide the latest research, consumer reviews and recommendations on child safety. Once a product has been purchased, consumers should take time to review the manual and fill out registration cards to receive updates and recall information as well.
Additional Resources
- Check recalls.gov to see if any infant or child products you use have been recalled.
- Review recommendations for safe baby-wearing here.
- Read more about how Traumatic Brain Injury effects infants.
Contact a Michigan Brain Injury Attorney
Brain injuries can cause serious, life-threatening events and result in permanent irreversible damage to the brain, especially for children. If a product failed and caused injuries to your loved one please call Lee Free and the Michigan traumatic brain injury lawyers at 1-800-LEE-FREE (1-800-533-3733) or fill out the Free Case Evaluation Form so we can answer any questions you may have about traumatic brain injury. You pay nothing until we settle your Michigan personal injury case. Let us help you today.
