These nursery products send children to the emergency room

There were more than 60,000 emergency room visits linked to nursery products in 2023. Certain products are more dangerous than others. (c) ConsumerAffairs

ER visits edged higher in recent years

Nursery products are involved with tens of thousands of children going to emergency rooms and hundreds dying every year.

In 2023, there were around 60,400 visits to the ER of children aged younger than five associated with nursery products, including high chairs, cribs and strollers, the federal government's Consumer Product Safety Commission said Thursday in a report.

There were 523 deaths linked to the products between 2019 and 2021, which is the latest data the CPSC published.

Nursery-product related ER visits have climbed slightly in recent years but the trend isn't statistically significant, the CPSC said.

Falls are the leading cause of these injuries and most frequently involve head injuries. Internal organ injuries, contusion or abrasion and laceration accounted for most of the other incidents.

And some nursery products are proving more dangerous.

High chairs, cribs or mattresses, infant carriers and strollers or carriages accounted for 64% of all emergency room visits associated with nursery products in 2023.

Causes of death included positional asphyxia, strangulation and drowning.

Between 2019 and 2021, around 76% of nursery-product deaths were linked to cribs or mattresses, bassinets or cradles, playpens or play yards, inclined infant sleep products and infant carriers.

The CPSC continues to set new safety regulations for babies, saying earlier this week it had approved new rules for nursing pillows following more than 100 infant deaths between 2010 and 2022.

Other infant products are also in the crosshairs of legislators and child advocates.

Democrats Senator Richard Blumenthal and representatives Tony Cárdenas and Kim Schrier introduced a bill this year into Congress that would ban weighted blankets and swaddles after pediatricians warned the products were contributing to 3,500 sleep-related infant deaths a year.

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