Recently, we were in my aunts and uncle’s garden for a barbeque, as while us adults chatted, my children and their cousins were all playing and jumping together on the huge trampoline.
Until my daughter came limping off it, crying.
She has just landed ‘funny’ she said, and didn’t want to get back up onto the trampoline that evening.
Luckily, just a couple of days later, her ankle was better.
However, this is not always the case, and more and more frequently, doctors are seeing children with trampoline-related injuries coming into A&E departments, both here in Ireland, and also abroad.
“Trampolines, trampolines, trampolines, says US pediatrician Dr Natasha Burgert to Mom.me. “The biggest things I see are trampoline injuries like broken bones.” The Americal Academy of Pediatrics estimate that close to 100,000 kids, aged between nine and 14 are injured on trampolines every year.
And while garden trampolines can be risky too if your children aren’t following safety rules and don’t have a net, it is trampoline parks many experts have an issue with in terms of safety.
The thing is, though, trampoline parks are great for burning off excess energy, and an ideal spot for playdates and birthday parties. Howver, alarming new research is showing why these parks can also be so dangerous for kids.
In the US, trampoline parks accounted for almost 18,000 emergency room visits in 2017, and CBS News confirmed at least six deaths have happened there since 2012.
US engineer Pete Pidcoe, who has spent about six years researching the design of trampoline parks, is explaining how the design of trampoline parks – with many trampolines bound together – can create an unsafe transfer of energy that makes surfaces unpredictable.
Pidcoe is now going public with his findings for the first time, and told CBS News that an entire park can turn into one large, bouncing surface.
”We found there is energy transferred between trampoline beds,” Pidcoe said. “It’s really one big trampoline.” He added that it makes these areas dangerous because it makes “the system unpredictable.”
“The trampoline surface is changing height. Have you ever stepped for a step that isn’t there? Picture having that happen on a trampoline,” he said.
Accompanied by some excruciating footage, taken at a New Jersey trampoline park, Pidcoe is able to show a dad “double bouncing” his son, who breaks his femur after falling.
“Largest bone in your body. It takes about 900 pounds to break it,” Pidcoe commented. “Now, he’s a child, so say maybe half that.” And he’s not the only one who is worried. According to Utah-based trauma surgeon Dr. Craig Cook, he has treated about 100 patients with severe trampoline park injuries
“These are the types of injuries that we’d see with a high velocity type of trauma like a motor vehicle crash at 90 miles per hour that rolls or an accident where a patient a victim is thrown off their motorcycle and they fly 100 feet,” Cook said about trampoline injuries.
Do YOU let your children visit trampoline parks? Let us know in the comments or tweet us at @herfamilydotie
