Much of the increase in injuries was related to concussions
MONDAY, March 13, 2017 (HealthDay News) — Emergency department visits for injuries related to strollers, cribs, and other nursery products rose nearly 24 percent between 2003 and 2011, after more than a decade of decline, according to a report published online March 13 in Pediatrics.
The findings are based on figures from a federal injury surveillance system. The authors specifically looked for emergency department visits among children younger than 3 who had injuries attributed to nursery products. On average, there were 66,278 such incidents each year. But the trend shifted over time.
Between 1991 and 2003, emergency department visits declined by over one-third, the investigators found. That improvement was largely due to an 86 percent drop in injuries related to baby walkers, “jumpers,” and “exercisers.” Emergency department visits rose 23.7 percent between 2003 and 2011, after more than a decade of decline. Much of the increase in injuries was related to concussions: The rate of concussion diagnoses more than doubled between 2005 and 2011.
According to the report, baby carriers were the product most commonly involved: They accounted for more than half of injuries among infants younger than 6 months. Often, babies were injured when the adult using the carrier tripped and fell. Cribs and strollers were also commonly implicated.
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