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Pediatricians Alarmed About “Wheeled” Shoes

Kids can roll right into the emergency room

By Mark Huffman
ConsumerAffairs.com

December 5, 2007
You see them roll by in schools and malls — kids are head over heels for them, but before you buy your kids a pair of wheeled shoes this holiday season, pediatricians have a warning:

The ultra-popular shoes that seem to give supernatural abilities to kids can be the magic carpet that soars right into the emergency room.

“It’s actually becoming a little more commonplace to see bone injuries from children wearing wheeled shoes,” says Gregory Sonnen, M.D., pediatrician on the medical staff at Baylor University Medical Center at Dallas. In fact, Sonnen and his colleagues say they see at least one or two broken bones a month from this latest fad.

“The problem with the wheeled shoes is that parents are buying them as casual footwear,” said. Sonnen.

Many pediatricians are now recommending these shoes are instead treated like a skateboard or rollerblades, not everyday shoe wear.

“When your child is wearing their wheeled-shoes they should also wear their safety equipment as well,” Sonnen said. “If we look at them as a piece of sporting good equipment I think people will be safer. However, if we look at them as a casual shoe as most people do, I think we’re going to continue to see a lot of injuries from accidents on wheeled shoes,” Sonnen said.

Head injuries

According to Sonnen, most kids tend to injure their wrists and elbows when wearing wheeled shoes, but the injuries parents and pediatricians fear most are head injuries.

Sonnen recommends that helmets should always be worn when wearing wheeled shoes.

Pediatricians also add that most of the injuries occur during the first week kids wear them so it’s especially important for parents to make sure they are well protected while they’re learning to walk and roll in them.

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