Accidents with Bottles, Pacifiers, and Sippy Cups. Courtesy of Nationwide Children's Hospital.
-As a mother of a toddler, Jackie Sherrill knows just how much comfort a bottle of milk can bring to her daughter, Morgan. But in an instant, she also found out just how much damage it can do. -I was reaching to get her and she kinda didn't know so I forward, and the bottle was in her mouth and she chipped her tooth on the bottle. -And a surprising new study shows that little Morgan is not alone. -Every four hours in the United States, a child experiences an injury related to the use of a baby bottle, a pacifier, or sippy cup, that requires a visit to the emergency department. -Sarah Keim is a researcher at Nationwide Children's Hospital, who led the study, the first ever to look these injuries on a national level. She and her team logged 20 years of data and found that 45,000 kids were treated for injuries while using these projects, and the vast majority were around one year old. -We think that's because they're just starting to learn how to walk, they tend to trip and fall quite a bit, and if they're walking with one of these products in their mouth, they're up to injure their mouth or their face. -Keim, who is also at the Ohio State University says, there are guidelines every parent should know about using these products. You should stop using pacifiers at six months. Stop using bottles when your kids can walk and don't let them carry sippy cups around. In fact, teaching kids to sit and drink from cups without lids not only teaches good habits but cuts down on the risk of accidents. -More than 80% of the injuries we saw in the study could have been prevented if these recommendations have been followed. -Recommendations to parents like Jackie say are easy to follow especially after learning the hard way how quickly kids can get hurt. At Nationwide Children's Hospital, this is Clark Powell reporting.
