HOW SAFE ARE SUPERMARKETS FOR SMALL CHILDREN
We are used to hearing about children having accidents
on the streets, in the house or in school. In fact, the number of children
received because of falls in the National Children's Hospital of Costa
Rica is high. During 1995, the Hospital received 14322 children because
of falls, and even though the majority of them, 9706, had the accident
at home, the other 1090 accidents were due to falls in a variety of different
places, one of them being the supermarket.
Children go to the supermarket for two reasons: because
the parents don't have someone to take care of them at home, or because
they love to go. The problem is that we are not always aware of the risk
that this implies, especially because of the falls or blows they might
suffer from the shopping carts.
Recently, doctors of the Department of Pediatrics of
Ohio University studied this situation, and they found interesting facts,
that are worth mentioning here.
During a 15-month period, 62 children were reported to
have suffered an accident because of the shopping carts, the majority
of them were less than 4 years old, but some were up to 10 years old.
The most common cause of the accident was a fall from the cart, or that
the cart flipped over, and in some cases wash the crashing against the
carts when the child was running through the aisle without paying attention
to where he was heading to.
Out of these children, 79% suffered blows on the head,
18% different types of fractures and 8% presented a skull fracture, even
to the point that a neurosurgeon intervention was needed because of intracranial
hematomas.
Now that we know that this is a problem, we should know
how to prevent it.
The easiest thing would be not to take the child to the
supermarket, but this is not always possible, especially when we don't
have someone responsible to leave them home with, which would mean an
even greater risk.
In some places the use of seat belt on the carts has
been put to use, or the use of special chairs that you put over the cart.
This does not solve the problem because when we tie the child or the center
of gravity is raised, the risk or the cart flipping over becomes greater.
A definite solution would be to redesign the shopping
carts thinking of the children's safety, but this solution is not a short
term one. So we should follow the following advice:
-
Avoid taking your child to the supermarket unless
it is absolutely necessary.
-
The fewer children you take, the better, since you
can keep a closer eye on them.
-
Let's always keep in mind that shopping carts are
dangerous and insecure, and that they are not meant to be for children.
My last recommendation is for the store managers, and
this is that instead of prohibiting children to get on the shopping cart,
to put signs showing the risk of using them on key spots.
