child at the playground sliding down red slide

playground slide

A seemingly simple and fun activity that parents may want to share with their children could have medical repercussions, as evidenced by a video currently popular on Facebook.

Sharing a ride down a slide with your child may appear to be fun but it could cause injury to your child.

A USA Today photo showing a playground accident that broke a 1-year-old girl’s leg, led to national attention to slide safety for little ones.

In a video shared to Facebook on an incident that took place in 2015, Heather Clare of Huntington, N.Y., shared a video in which she put her 1-year-old daughter on her lap and took her “down a slide during a family outing at a local park.” The child’s “right foot caught the side of the slide, snapping her tibia and fibula.” In her Facebook post, Clare advocated “for warning signs at playgrounds telling parents not to ride down slides” with their kids.

From 2002-15, there were 350,000 children under the age of five who were injured on slides, according to the Centers for Disease Control. A 2017 study published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics showed that more than 350,000 children younger than 6 years old were injured by going down a slide in the United States between 2002 and 2015.

In the majority of cases, children experienced a fracture after their foot caught the edge or bottom of a slide while sitting on a parent’s lap.

For the safest outcome parents should allow their child to go down slides alone.

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Article by:

Heather Felton, M.D.

Dr. Heather Felton is medical director of UofL Pediatrics – Sam Swope Kosair Charities Centre. She is also an assistant professor at the University of Louisville School of Medicine. She received her bachelor’s degree from the University of Kentucky and her medical degree from the University of Louisville School of Medicine. She is a member of the American Medical Association, Kentucky Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics and Group of Women in Medicine and Science. Her specialty is pediatrics. Dr. Felton’s areas of interest include safety and injury prevention; improving anticipated guidance provided to families during check-ups; and advocating for children’s safety. http://www.uoflphysicians.com/uofl-pediatrics-sam-swope-kosair-charities-centre

All posts by Heather Felton, M.D.
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