Parents warned about the dangers of shopping carts

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has warned parents against placing children in shopping carts and is advising they look for alternatives.

A study has found that more than 20,000 children were injured in shopping cart-related injuries last year and needed emergency hospital treatment.

It seems that four percent of the 20,700 U.S. children, who received treatment for a shopping cart-related injury in a hospital emergency department in 2005, required hospital admission.

Fractures were the most common diagnosis of those hospitalized - 45% ,while head and neck injuries accounted for 79% of the injuries requiring emergency treatment.

Deaths have also been reported from falls from shopping carts and cart tipovers.

According to a study conducted by Gary Smith, MD, director of the Center for Injury Research and Policy (CIRP) at the Columbus Children's Research Institute at Columbus Children's Hospital, it was found that an in-store safety intervention program successfully increased the use of child safety-restraints in shopping carts.

This study looked at the effectiveness of the intervention with children five years of age and younger and involved greeting customers at the store entrance and encouraging the use of appropriate shopping cart restraints, plus a cash incentive coupon.

Of the seven stores involved, 3 acted as intervention sites, and 4 were non-intervention sites.

Trained study personnel discreetly observed and recorded the use of shopping cart restraint use as caregivers approached the store checkout areas.

They found that the increase in safety-restraint use in shopping carts was greater in the intervention and the percentage of correct restraint use increased from 15% before the intervention to 49% after.

Smith, says however that one-half of the children still remained unrestrained or incorrectly restrained despite the efforts.

He believes that child restraints in shopping carts are just part of the solution and that shopping carts need to be redesign to prevent them tipping over and the current safety standard strengthened to prevent such injuries.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says that shopping cart falls are among the leading causes of head injuries to young children and there are no signs of a decrease in injuries.

The study is published in the August issue of Pediatrics.