Less than a month ago we told you that it was advisable to use highchairs when putting babies to eat because they learned faster. Well, it is, but as long as they are there safely.
A recent study conducted in the US just revealed an alarming fact: babies suffer more and more falls from high chairs, and the increase has been of almost 22% from 2003 to 2010. To these data it is added that in the emergency services they get to attend an average of almost 9,500 injuries related to highchairs every year. Figure equivalent to an injured baby every hour (and that without taking into account those who fall and do not go to the emergency room).
Study Data
To carry out the study, the authors collected data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System of the country looking for injuries related to high chairs, high chairs and normal chairs that occurred between 2003 and 2010, in which children aged three years or less were involved.
They saw the injuries of children who were in their high chairs or high chairs increased from 8,926 in 2003 to 10,930 in 2010. A large part of the accidents, about two thirds, were caused by children who stood up or climbed up the chair before falling.
The logical conclusion that the researchers drew is that safety straps do not work well or are inadequateor that parents they don't use them well, or directly they don't use them.
Potentially serious injuries
Babies have a fairly large and heavy head compared to the body, so their center of gravity is much higher than ours. This means that when a baby falls from a surface, what tends to impact earlier, or with more violence, is the head. According to the study data, and to confirm this, I just commented, 85% of the injuries were in the head and face.
As the high chairs, in addition, they are in the kitchen, where the floor is not usually very soft (there in the US, if I'm not mistaken, it is usual that the floor of the house is parquet or even have carpet) ), but it is hard, the risk of major injury is more than evident.
And that, although the available models are continually being reviewed to avoid risks. According to Gary Smith, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy at the National Pediatric Hospital of Columbus, Ohio, and co-author of the study:
In recent years, millions of high chairs have been removed because they do not meet current safety standards. Most of these chairs are reasonably safe when following the instructions of the safety belts, but still, 3.5 million high chairs were removed in the period of our study alone.
Safety measures to prevent falls
Faced with such an alarm, given the figures, which show that high chairs are increasingly dangerous for children, probably because parents are less and less careful, all parents are reminded which are the security measures to avoid falls from a high chair:
- Be clear that the highchair table does not serve as a seat belt.
- Be clear that if the high chair has no table, the table to which the child approaches to eat does not serve as a seat belt.
- Be clear that putting baggy straps on the baby is equivalent to not putting them on.
- Be clear that babies have a gift, called escapism, that makes them able to get out of any restraint That is not perfectly set.
That is, if we raise our baby to the high chair must be fastened yes or yes with the belt, and also do it well, so that he can not get out of the high chair. Or that, or sit by his side and get him off the high chair if we're going to go somewhere else. Even if he is sitting with the straps, we should never leave him there alone, because the effectiveness is never 100% (they know how to escape, I insist).
In addition, we must bear in mind that They are very skilled and able to climb the high chair from outside and, therefore, we have to avoid this risk, either by keeping the highchair in a place where they do not arrive or the baby does not enter, either being with the baby at all times, to avoid that, in the silence of his immense curiosity I managed to climb a little, or a lot, without our supervision.
