Child Safety & Your Exercise Equipment
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Health Tip of the Week COVID-19 has changed the way many Americans exercise. No longer able or willing to access public or private gyms, more families purchased exercise equipment – treadmills and stationary bikes, primarily – to keep fit at home. While the trend to home-based exercise equipment has proven to be more convenient for some parents, it has also been a source of worry. How can parents keep these machines away from curious children?
The dangers of home exercise equipment made headlines in 2009 when Mike Tyson’s 4-year-old daughter tragically died in a treadmill accident. While studies have shown the most common injuries sustained by young children (age 4 and younger) from mechanical home exercise equipment are lacerations and soft tissue injuries, there are always exceptions and far worse consequences. Another study of home exercise equipment-related injuries showed more than 75% of injuries were associated with stationary bicycles, treadmills and jump ropes.
And it’s not just infants and toddlers who are being injured. More than 70% of children injured in home exercise equipment-related mishaps were younger than age 10. Older children and teens can also be injured trying to use the machines without fully knowing how to do so safely.
So how can you keep your children safe around a home gym? Prevent Child Injury, a project funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, launched a new toolkit on home exercise equipment safety earlier this year with targeted tips to help parents better protect their families around home exercise equipment.
To reduce injury around your home gym:
While many home exercise equipment injuries are minor, serious accidents do occur. When in doubt, call your child’s pediatrician and head to your local Emergency Department or Urgent Care Center.
Patty Huang, MD, is a developmental pediatrician in the Division of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics and the Autism Integrated Care Program, a senior fellow at the Center for Injury Research and Prevention at Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, and moderator of the Research in Action blog on the Center for Injury Research & Prevention website.
Contributed by: Patty Huang, MD
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