At Playground, Child Plus Lap Can Equal Danger

Last spring, Katie Dickman of Dunkirk, Md., was at the playground with
her 18-month-old toddler, Hannah, when the little girl asked to ride
down a twisting slide. Ms. Dickmanaccompanied her daughter, carefully
keeping the child on her lap as they coasted to the bottom.
But without warning, Hannah's sneaker caught on the side of the slide.
Although Ms. Dickman grabbed the leg and unstuck her daughter's foot,
by the time they reached the ground, the girl was whimpering and could
not walk. A doctor's visit later revealed a fractured tibia.
"My wife was just trying tokeep Hannah extra safe and make sure she
didn't fall," said Hannah's father, Jed Dickman. "She felt veryguilty
about it."
As the Dickmans soon learned, such injuries are surprisingly common.
Although nobody keeps national statistics, orthopedic specialists say
they treat a number of toddlers and young children each year with
broken legs as a result of riding down the slide on a parent's lap. A
study at Winthrop University Hospital in Mineola, N.Y., found that
nearly 14 percent of pediatric leg fractures over an 11-month period
involved toddlers riding down the slide with a parent.
Dr. Edward Holt, the orthopedic surgeon at Anne Arundel Medical Center
in Annapolis who treated Hannah's injury last April, said that just
two weeks ago he treated a 4-year-old boy who had been injured going
down the slide with his father.
"This fracture is entirely preventable," said Dr. Holt, who has
created a warning poster for local pediatrician offices and a You Tube
video alerting parents to the hazard.
This may be one of those counterintuitive cases when a child is safer
by himself. If a foot gets caught while the child is sliding alone, he
can just stop moving or twist around until it comes free. But when a
child is sitting in an adult lap, the force ofthe adult's weight
behind him ends up breaking his leg/

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