The Dangers of Nursery Products: A Serious Problem Worth Knowing More About :

Despite the recent safe sleep guideline revisions (10.1542/peds.2016-1889) to keep crib areas free of clutter, baby products for the crib as well as products for carrying babies, or even exercising them can be fraught with injury—at least according to a study by Gaw et al. (10.1542/peds.2016-2503) characterizing injuries associated with these products. The authors used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System looking for injuries in children under three years of age from nursery products over a 20 year period.  To our surprise, an estimated 1.4 million nursery product-related injuries were reported –about 66,000 per year or 56 per 10,000 children. While the authors report a decrease thanks to public education about the dangers of baby walkers and jumper exercisers, there has been an increase in concussions and closed head injuries from falls off nursery equipment. Just what is causing those falls involving cribs, strollers, and baby carriers can be further identified by reading this interesting but worrisome descriptive study.  Fasten your seatbelts, read this safety study and share the information in it with families of infants that you see in your practice.  It could be that this study will provide you and your patients with the anticipatory guidance that may make a difference in preventing injuries that need not occur by having families of infants pay better attention to the nursery equipment that families have in their homes.