Why you shouldn’t go down a slide with your child on your lap

A mum in the US has taken to Instagram to share a terrifying warning after her son badly injured himself at the park. 

Jean, who runs the Instagram account Momma Will Teach, thought it was safe for her son to ride down a slide sitting on her lap. But as she now knows, this move is actually quite dangerous, and resulted in the 18-month-old breaking his leg. 

“’Tis the season to share a tip I wish was in the nonexistent parenting handbook, or at least @ the pediatrician 18-month checkup,” she wrote. 

“Let your little one go down the slide by themselves, when their core strength is strong enough, of course.”

“Here I was, a mom of 18 months, thinking how sweet to put my toddler on my lap for additional support. Boy, was I wrong & learned the hard way, 5 short months after he started walking.”

Jean added some more information from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

“Riding down a slide [with your child on your lap] can actually increase the chances that a child could break his/her leg or get seriously injured in another way,” she wrote.

“When they are sitting on the lap of a parent, the relative force is much greater because of additional weight. This means you’re going down the slide at a much faster speed, making the chance of a broken bone more likely if the child’s foot catches on the slide’s surface.”

Lots of parents commented saying they’ve gone down a slide with their child plenty of times and nothing ever happened, but others were grateful for the warning, with some saying they experienced it themselves.

“I’d love to see signs up at playgrounds! Lots of caregivers don’t have any idea it’s dangerous,” said one parent. “Sometimes I will say something because I have experienced it myself with my niece riding on my lap. There are so many things we can’t protect our kids from, but this is one that’s completely preventable!”

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How it happens: the ‘toddler’s fracture’

In an article published on Web MD, Charles Jennissen, clinical professor of emergency medicine and pediatrics at the University of Iowa in Iowa City, says a lot of people aren’t aware of the danger of going down the slide with a child on your lap.

However, broken bones are a very common injury from slides, as the child’s foot or leg can get caught at an odd angle with their parent’s weight behind it. Dr Jennissen said that children under three are more at risk. 

“The type of injury they get is called a toddler’s fracture,” Dr Jennissen said. “They get a crack in their mid-to-lower leg bone.”

Something to be wary of is that sometimes children can still walk on their legs after, which can lead to the fracture being misdiagnosed as a sprain. 

“Some of these kids, even though there’s a fracture, can still walk on it. They can bear weight and even limp around,” he says.

“But the younger the child, the less likely they are to have a sprain/strain because the weakest part of the musculoskeletal system is their bones,” he says. “They’re more likely to get a fracture.”