As she reaches the edge of the playground, you can see her eyes widen in anticipation. It is the first warm weather season for her to join in the play. As a new toddler, she is just learning how her arms and legs can carry her to new places. And as she sees the “big kids” running and climbing on the playground equipment, she knows that she needs to follow.
You are watching her as she surveys the crowd of kids from the edge of the chipped mulch. In a few short moments, she has confidently climbed higher than you imagined she could, fueled by determination and spirit. When she gets up all the way to the very top of the playground, you notice her peering over the edge of a fascinating, shiny slide.
She looks down the slide with natural hesitation. It looks a little scary. Too high, too new, too twisty. She gets pushed aside for a moment as a school-aged child jumps in front of her in line. She watches him squeal with delight until his feet land at the bottom of the slide, kicking mulch into the air. You see in her face that she yearns to follow.
So what do you do to help? You jump in, climbing up to the top of the slide saying, “Wait there, Honey, we can go down together. Just sit on my lap.”
[See: The 11 Most Dangerous Places in Your Home for Babies and Small Kids.]
Parents all across the country are Instagramming and Snapchatting themselves riding down playground slides with precious little ones happily on their laps. What the social feed does not show are the thousands of small children every year who walk away from this age-old routine with tear-stained cheeks and a limp. As it turns out, though it seems innocent enough, riding down a playground slide with a small child on your lap is a common way to break a child’s leg.
It seems to make sense that by riding down the slide with a small child, we are protecting the child from injury. A held toddler can’t fall off the side of the slide or come down too hard at the end. And we want to show our kids that slides are fun and exciting, joining them in one of the great joys of childhood. The reality, however, is that going down a playground slide with a toddler on your lap puts your child at risk of a leg fracture.
The broken leg happens when your toddler hops in your lap, snuggles in and begins the descent. On the way down, she gets excited and unpredictably flails her limbs. This motion allows her foot to slip outside of your leg, getting trapped between your sliding body and the edge of the slide. Your adult weight pins her leg so quickly that before you even realize her foot is caught … twist and snap. This is especially true when toddlers are (appropriately) wearing sticky rubber-soled shoes that grip to the edge of the slide more firmly.
Researchers have found that up to 36 percent of slide-related injuries involve leg fractures, with the peak age of injury being 12 to 23 months. The vast majority of these doctor visits specifically include reports of the child sliding on a caregiver’s lap. This translates to thousands of broken legs every year. The treatment for these fractures is a long leg cast. And no one wants a toddler to have a leg in a cast for the summer. No one.
[See: The 5 Latest Poison Control Threats Kids Face.]
So how can we still have fun at the park, enjoy the slides and not make pediatricians cringe at your Instagram feed?
Let them slide by themselves. Visit playgrounds with age-appropriate play options. Parks in every city have slides of various heights. If your toddler can climb to the top and wants to come down, let him do so on his own. If the top of the slide is too scary, guide him to another area of the equipment.
Keep your feet on the ground. If you really want to provide an assist on a slide, lift your toddler onto the slide as high as you can reach, holding her hand on the way down. This way, your toddler gets some reassurance and stability but is still able to move independently if a limb gets in an awkward position on the way down.
If you do choose to take the ride, be mindful of the risk. Use your arms and legs to best secure your toddler’s limbs from flailing near the sides of the slide on the way down. And, maybe pop the shoes off. Taking off rubber-soled shoes before riding together seems like a commonsense measure to decrease the risk of catching the sticky rubber on a place that might increase the risk of injury.
[See: 10 Concerns Parents Have About Their Kids’ Health.]
Be sure to share this with your summer babysitters, nannies and grandparents. We want all the people who love and care for our kids to get outside, go to the parks and have fun throughout the whole summer, while avoiding a common injury that will keep a casted kid on the couch during the best time of the year.
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Slide Safety: How to Protect Your Toddler From a Broken Leg originally appeared on usnews.com
