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Publication #FAR5009

 

Shopping Cart Injuries1

Donna Davis2

Figure 1. 
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Perhaps you were one of those children who thought of the shopping cart as a mountain for the courageous climber to conquer, or a racecar with you at the wheel. Or you've been challenged by one of those children in the grocery store who were not just riding in, but standing in, climbing on, or pushing that shopping cart like it was their own private jungle gym, skateboard, or glider.

According to a recent report in the Journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics, an estimated 24,200 children younger than 15 years old, 85% of which were younger than 5 years old, were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms last year for shopping cart-related injuries! Approximately 4% of those injuries required admission to the hospital, and 75% of the injuries involved head and neck injury. Fractures are the most common injury resulting in admission (Smith, 2006).

How can you keep your child safe in a shopping cart? The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends, "If a parent chooses to transport his or her child in a shopping cart, then an effective, age- and size-appropriate restraining device should be worn by the child at all times. Children should not be left unattended in a shopping cart, be allowed to stand up in a cart, be transported in the basket, or ride on the outsideof a cart." It may not be easy, but insisting on a restraint may save you a trip to the emergency room and untold trauma.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our website at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/502.mp3

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References

Shopping cart–related injuries to children: Policy statement [Electronic version]. Pediatrics, 118, 825-827. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/2/825.

Shopping cart–related injuries to children: Technical report [Electronic version]. Pediatrics, 118, e540-e544. Retrieved August 15, 2006, from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/2/e540.

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR5009, one of a series of the Family Youth and Community Sciences Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Broadcast as program 502 in January 2007. Published on EDIS July 2012. In the interest of time and/or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donna Davis, senior producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.