How many times have you gone down a playground slide with your child or grandchild in your lap, assuming it was safer than letting them slide down by themselves? Well, you may want to rethink your playground habits after reading this. Emily Harrington of Central Illinois, took to ChambanaMoms.com to share her scary tale of what she thought was going to be a pleasant afternoon at the park with her toddler.
"I situated him on my lap and away we went. In the second it took to reach the bottom, the rubber sole of his shoe grazed the side of the slide. His shoe caught and sent his left leg backward as we propelled forward. The rest was a blur of tears. He was inconsolable. At that moment I didn't even know anything serious could be wrong. There was no drama—no crash, no fall, no crack, no blood, no bruise, no bump—not even a scratch. Surely he was going to stop crying and everything would be OK. He didn't. I tried to set him down and his left leg just shook as it hovered above the ground.
We raced to the emergency department where we were told he had fractured the long bone under his knee, the tibia. After nine days in a splint and a four-week prognosis in a cast, my son will thankfully never remember this time in his life. My husband and I, however, will never forget it as long as we live."
You can read the rest of her chilling tale here.
Studies show that this was not just a freak accident, as there is a relationship between the shinbone fractures and young children going down a slide on the lap of an adult in which the child's leg becomes stuck, but the adult and child cannot stop moving down the slide.
Bottom line, the next time you're at the playground, reconsider putting your kid on your lap on the slide and try supervising them from the ground instead.