Pediatric Law Firm

Safety hazards in child care settings.

Does your child care provider offer a safe environment for your child?  A study by the Consumer Product Safety Commission raises questions and, also, provides a checklist for you to use to conduct your own examination of your care provider.

About 31,000 children, four years and younger are treated in United States hospital emergency rooms for injuries at child care or school settings.  At least 56 children died in child care centers between 1990 and 1999. This prompted the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to investigate 220 licensed child providers for safety hazards.  It examined in-home care, for-profit centers, nonprofit centers, and federal General Services Administration child care centers. 

CPSC staff investigated eight potential safety hazards: cribs, soft bedding, playground surfacing, maintenance of playground surfaces, child safety gates, window blind cords, drawstrings in children’s clothing, and recalled children’s products.  CPSC found that two-thirds of the child care settings had at least one of the targeted safety hazards.  A summary of the results follows.

Cribs:  More babies -- about 40 to 50 each year -- die in accidents involving cribs than with any other piece of nursery equipment.  Children can strangle when crib slats that are too far apart and their heads catch in the slats.  Crib slats should be no more than 2 3/8 inches apart.  (Spacing on bunk bed railings for older children should be no more than 3 ½ inches.) Children can suffocate when their faces and noses are wedged between a too-small mattress and the crib.  Also, there can be problems with old cribs that are not sturdy or have catch points that can entangle children’s clothing. 

In the study, the CPSC found that 8% of the child care settings had cribs that did not meet current safety standards. 

Soft Bedding:  Soft bedding presents a suffocation risk for infants.  Each year, as many as 900 babies whose deaths are attributed to Sudden Death Syndrome (SIDS) may have suffocated on soft bedding.  Parents should be on the look out for too-soft pillows, comforters, and quilts.  CPSC has recommended eliminating all soft bedding in babies’ cribs.

In the study, CPSC found that 19% of the child care settings had cribs containing soft bedding.

Playground Surfacing:  For children under age six, playground-related injuries (about 90,000 each year) account for more visits to U.S. hospital emergency rooms than any other child care-related injury.  About 15 children die each year from playground-related injuries.  Because 70 percent of playground injuries result from falls, playground surfaces should be made of material that gives. A well-designed playground will use 12 inches of wood chips, mulch, sand, pea gravel or shock absorbing rubber.  Grass or dirt is no guarantee of safety, because each can become too hard under certain weather conditions: hot dry summer or frozen winter.

In the CPSC study, 24% of child care settings did not have safe playground surfacing.

Playground Maintenance:  Even if the playgrounds were built correctly, they must be maintained. 

The CPSC found that 27% of the child care settings did not maintain the playgrounds to meet safety standards.

Child Safety Gates:  Child safety gates can protect children from hazards, especially falls down stairs.  Each year more than 100,000 children under age five go to U.S. Hospitals with stair-related injuries. 

The CPSC found that 13% of the child care settings did not use child safety gates where necessary.

Window Blind Cords:  About one child per month strangles in window covering cords, often in the loop of cords.  At least two children since 1990 have died in child care settings after standing up in their cribs and becoming entangled in a window blind cord.  Although new blinds are no longer manufactured with loops, many older blinds still have them.  The cords can be made safer by merely cutting the loops and tying the cords securely out of harm’s way.

The CPSC found that 26% of the child care settings had loops on window blind cords.

Clothing with drawstrings:  Since 1985, CPSC has received reports of at least 22 deaths and 47 non-fatal injuries caused by drawstring entanglements.  At least one death since 1990 occurred at a child care location where a drawstring on a child’s piece of clothing caught on playground equipment.  Also, drawstrings have been caught in bus and car doors, dragging the child. Clothing should not have drawstrings around the neck, and drawstrings at the waist should be no longer than 3 inches.  If your child’s clothing has offending drawstrings, simply cut them off.

In the study, CPSC found that 38% of the child care settings had children wearing clothing with drawstrings at the neck.

Recalled products:  Using recalled nursery products and toys can be a hazard to young children.  CPSC is aware of at least three children in child care since 1990 who have died in incidents involving a portable crib/playpen that had been recalled.   The CPSC found that 5% of the child care settings had products that had been recalled.

Take a cue from the CPSC: inspect your child care facility as you would inspect your own home -- looking for potential hazards to your children