Baby Gate Injuries Tripled In The Last 20 Years: Child Safety Measures Need To Be Reassessed

The United States Consumer Product Safety Commission claims that the risk of injury to children can be prevented by utilizing child-safety devices such as baby gates. However, according to a new study, some of the baby gates that parents use to bar their children from getting into trouble aren’t always as safe.

The Academic Pediatrics journal found that the number of children injured has tripled from 1990 to 2010. Almost 2,000 American children have to visit the emergency room after falling into or trying to climb on these gates.

The researchers used data from 1,188 cases of related injuries to give representative information. The good news is that 97.6 percent of patients did not have to be hospitalized for their injuries because many of these injuries were not serious. The children who were injured the most were boys over the age of 2, comprising 60 percent of the cases. Of the total injured, 33 percent suffered soft tissue harm such as bumps and bruises, and 16 percent of children suffered concussions.

"We are probably seeing more of these injuries because parents are using these gates in their homes, which is good," said study author Lara McKenzie, Live Science reported. "But we maybe need to do a better job of [determining] where the gates are installed, and making sure that it is a good, secure fit in those places."

McKenzie and other researchers at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, believe that “greater efforts are needed to promote proper usage, ensure safety in product design, and increase awareness of age-related recommendations for use of gates.”

"Baby gates are one of the most widely used home safety products, and they are meant to protect children from accessing stairways and doorways and other hazards in the home," McKenzie added. "But the problem is that there is not always a good fit or match with the gate and the area that it is being used in."