(facepalm) Warning: Children eat glass ornaments

[The Straight Story]

Warning: Children eat glass ornaments


BOSTON, Dec. 17 (UPI) -- Holiday decorations -- particularly glass ornaments -- are one more safety hazard parents must consider during the season, a U.S. physician says.

Study co-author Dr. Lois Lee of Children's Hospital Boston's Division of Emergency Medicine reviewed records from the Children's Emergency Department and found an average of five ornament-related injuries per year. More than half of the injuries involve a child eating fragments of ornaments, including batteries and pieces of glass, Lee said.

"Parents need to be vigilant during the holiday season, even though it's also a busy time of year," Lee said in a statement. "If you know that your child has a tendency to put things in his or her mouth, you should be especially careful."

The study, published in the journal Pediatric Emergency Care, found out of a total of 76 cases from October 1995 to March 2008:

-- 56 percent involved ingestion or taking fragments of ornaments or light bulbs into the mouth; more than a quarter of these injuries resulted in bleeding of the mouth or gastrointestinal tract.

http://www.upi.com/Health_News/2009/12/17/Warning-Children-eat-glass-ornaments/UPI-15251261029879/

So someone paid for a study that found that there were 5 ornament related injuries per year.... I think I will be off unemployment soon and raking in the bucks doing studies :)

[upi402]

1. My kid found them to be great

hand grenades, one early morning...
:woohoo:

[struggle4progress]

2. It's five injuries a year at Boston's Children's Hospital emergency room, consistently

over several years. Even if you assume Children's Hospital is the only Boston facility seeing such injuries (which is an unlikely assumption), this data suggests the injury is not uncommon: based on population, one might multiply by about 500 to scale to the US, so there are probably thousands of injuries like this annually

At least one of the authors specializes in pediatric injuries. I don't see anything wrong with research like this: it suggests certain issues as targets for public education

... The study authors conducted a computer search through emergency department records from Children's, dating October 1995 through March 2008 ... http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/parents-be-mindful-of-hazardous-holiday-ornaments-79222927.html

[The Straight Story]

3. Public education?

Like parents don't already know kids will get their hands on anything within their reach and try to eat it/play with it.

Should we have yearly press releases and required school courses in common sense?

[Cirque du So-What]

4. One of my earliest memories as a toddler

was that of biting into an ornament that had a light in its base that also served as a heater for a tube of amber liquid that bubbled when warm. I don't remember whether I cut my mouth, but the liquid inside was quite nasty; I'm pretty sure I didn't swallow any of it. Apparently, I didn't suffer chemical burns either, as I'm certain I didn't go to the hospital.

Yes, I was quite a handful back then. Thing is, I wasn't unique, and young children today are just as likely to pop something colorful or shiny into their mouths without a second thought.