A new study found baby gates can be dangerous if not used correctly.
Between the years of 1990 and 2010 hospitals in the United States treated 37,673 children under the age of seven for injuries inflicted by baby gates, a Nationwide Children's Hospital news release reported. This works out to be an average of about five injured children per day.
Over 60 percent of the children who were injured were under the age of two. The most common cause of injury was falling down stairs after the gait malfunctioned or was left open. Most of the cases were soft tissue injuries such as sprains, strains, and even traumatic brain injuries.
Children between the ages of two and six years old were more often injured from climbing on the gates and getting hurt.
"Baby gates are essential safety devices for parents and caregivers, and they should continue to be used," Lara McKenzie, PhD, the study's co-author and a principal investigator in the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children's Hospital said in the news release. "It is important, however, to make sure you are using a gate that meets the voluntary safety standards and is right type of gate for where you are planning to use it."
The researchers suggested that parents only use the gates as room dividers or at the bottom of stairs because they are not designed to prevent children from falling down the stairs.
"Current standards are voluntary and concentrate on things like the size of the openings, height, vertical strength, bottom spacing, configuration of the uppermost edge and label warnings," Doctor McKenzie said. "While these are important, making them mandatory and adding standards to address designs that limit children's ability to climb gates, prevent gates from collapsing, and provide better cushion to children if they fall on the gate would prevent many of the injuries we saw in our study."
