New data from CPSC suggests increase in injuries from juvenile products

Today CPSC released its 2010 Nursery Product Report. The report looks at injuries and deaths in nursery products from 2009. The report cites 77,300 injuries involving nursery products that required a trip to the emergency room. This is an increase of around 21% from last year. The rate does fluctuate year to year, but this is a particularly high increase. Injuries in cribs rose by about 27% from 11,500 to 14,600. CPSC says the increase could be due to technical issues, but their staff (and KID!) will be carefully reviewing the data to determine if there are product related issues leading to the increase. Infant carriers and car seats (outside of their use in cars), cribs and strollers were the top three categories, accounting for most of the injuries.

CPSC gets death data from different sources, and only provides averages over a three year period. The data also lags behind injury data, so the average number of deaths from 2005-2007 was 88 a year, with 60 of those in sleep environments such as cribs (36), bassinets (14) and play yards (10).

CPSC notes that the deaths and injuries, while involving a product, may not always be caused by product defects, but by other factors such as extra bedding. Check out KID's safe sleep tips or CPSC's new video for more information on creating a safe sleep environment.

The new database that launches in March 2011 will provide additional injury data to study along with this emergency room data.

Latest CPSC Report on Nursery Product Related Injuries & Deaths

Recently, the CPSC released their latest available statistics on injuries and deaths related to nursery products. This report details the nursery product related injury estimates from 2008 in which an estimated 63,700 injuries among children under the age of five were treated in hospital emergency rooms.

The items most frequently involved in these incidents were carriages/strollers, infant carriers and car seat carriers (used outside of cars), cribs/mattresses, and high chairs. Stroller injuries rose 33% to 12, 400 from 9,300. The leading cause of injuries were falls in which the head was the most frequently injured body part -- 48% (which is up 4% from last year's report of 44%) of the reported injuries involved the head.

The most recent numbers CPSC is releasing on deaths are from 2004 through 2006 in which 247 deaths occurred. CPSC estimates an average of 82 deaths annually involving nursery products. About 31 of those deaths annually involve cribs/ mattresses, with an average of 12 deaths in baby baths/bath seats/ bathinettes and 11 deaths involving playpens/ play yards and bassinets/cradles. The causes of these deaths range from positional asphyxia and strangulation to drowning. These statistics are a reminder that before using any sleep environment for your baby, check to make sure it is properly assembled, with no missing or broken hardware; that it has not been recalled; and then, remember, bare is best. Remove all soft bedding from a crib or bassinet and use only the mattress supplied or recommended by the manufacturer. Report all problems with a nursery product to the manufacturer and CPSC. Lastly, remain vigilant to your baby and their surroundings.