From: Sally Van Dyk
Columbus
After reading an article online about the injury a toddler in New York received from sliding down a curved slide on her mother’s lap, I felt the need to write about a nearly identical incident in my family.
When my grandson was a toddler, he sat on his mother’s lap to slide down a curved slide. Halfway down, his rubber-soled shoe caught on the slide, catching his leg between the slide and his mother and fracturing his leg. The leg of the little girl online did exactly the same thing, fracturing her leg.
The attending emergency room physician in New York said this type of accident happens fairly often. My reason for writing this letter is to stress to well-meaning mothers that sliding down a curved slide with a youngster on your lap is dangerous.
Yes, it might keep the child from tumbling down the slide, which he or she might do if sliding alone. However, a child on a mother’s lap is apt to end up with a very painful broken leg and a cast from toes to hip, as did my grandson. Please think again before sliding with a youngster on the lap.
