Half of all bathtub injuries involve toddlers

By Rachel Stockton

The bathtub can be a scary place. Jordan Stephens, a two year old from Tulsa, OK was playing in the bathtub one evening a few years ago, while her mother, Mandy, sat nearby. Mandy got up to get a towel out of the linen closet, which was in the same room. “By the time I turned around less than 10 seconds later,” Mandy says, “Jordan was under the water, choking.” Luckily, Mandy grabbed the toddler before she could be seriously injured. “I felt guilty for days after that, even though I really don’t think there was anything I could have done, it happened so quickly.”

According to a national survey studied by Columbia Children’s Hospital in Ohio, Mandy’s right; most bathtub incidents involving toddlers happen when parents are present. And, although Mandy avoided a trip to the emergency room, 43,000 toddlers per year aren’t so lucky.

The survey results, which will be published during August by the journal Pediatrics, showed that 60% of injured toddlers sustained lacerations and cuts, while another 50% experienced sprains and soft tissue injuries.

The results of the current survey are nearly identical to a similar study conducted by Columbia in 2005 and published in Clinical Pediatrics. For that particular study, which was led by medical student Sandra P. Spencer, researcher Dr. Gary A. Smith and his team analyzed 200 bathtub injuries among children from 4 months to 16 years over the course of three years; 80% of the injuries were the results of falls.

And, like the current study, Dr. Smith found that in 4 out of 5 instances, an adult was present, shattering what he calls the “myth of supervision.”

While Dr. Smith concurs that watching every move a toddler makes is impossible, he suggests parents have a slip resistant mat both inside and outside of the tub or shower, as well as support bars for kids to hold onto while they get in and out of the tub or shower.