Preventing Toddler Bathtub Injuries

on July 13, 2009 at 3:00 PM

Here's a scary statistic: half of all bathtub injuries involve toddlers.

A new study in Pediatrics shows that 120 kids each day are rushed to the emergency room for bath- or shower-related injuries—with children age 4 and under accounting for most of these accidents. How do these injuries occur? It's probably not what you'd expect...

Although burns and incidents of drowning/near-drowning are common bathtub accidents, new research shows more than 43,000 kids each year are injured by slips and falls.

The most common toddler injuries resulting from slips and falls are cuts and lacerations, particularly to the head. "They tend to topple forward...They have a high center of gravity, and they tend to strike their head and their face..." said one of the doctors in the study.

Althought experts place most of the blame on bathtub and shower manufacturers (for not providing enough friction), there are a few things parents can do to prevent toddler bathtub injuries:

Use slip-resistant mats inside and outside of bathtubs.
Install support bars for kids to hold onto when getting into and out of the tub.
Never leave toddlers unsupervised in or around the bathtub.
Always keep one hand on toddlers in the bathtub at all times.
Keep bathroom doors closed at all times.

Is this good advice? How do you prevent your toddler from having accidents in and around the bathtub?

About the author Kim Conte

has shoes that make people stop her on the street and ask "Where did you get those?" but it doesn't work for taxi cabs as she was hit by one ... and lived to tell the tale. She has more freckles than Lohan but way less attitude. And she's a fierce cook with tons of recipes to share -- and wishes she could share some with Bourdain.

Filed Under: bathtime, safety

Comments (35)

RanaAurora

on Jul 13, 2009 at 3:47 PM

Most importantly, don't leave kids under 4 alone!
Also, get a soft spout cover, like this:

That second one has a digital thermometer as well to help prevent burns.

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aurorabunny

on Jul 13, 2009 at 4:04 PM

I can't stress enough what Rana just said, especially after that scary poll a while back revealing that tons of moms leave 2 and 3 year olds in the tubs all by themselves. Ugh. Makes me cringe just thinking about it.

Those are cool spout covers.

weirdjojo

on Jul 14, 2009 at 12:11 AM

Its easy to say but if you have multiple kids of different genders and ages and/or are a single parent, single father it can be very difficult. A parent would need to leave the door open to pay attention to the other kids, may have to leave the room because they forgot a towel or something else-doesnt make them a bad parent, just human. The other alternative to leaving them alone for a minute is to not bathe the child for safety reasons. Really? Taking precautions is wonderful and great prevention, however, even with all the precautions even having your hand on the child and a fall can still happen. How many of these fall hit their heads on the tub itself or on a toy that was in the tub?

on Jul 14, 2009 at 12:50 AM

Weirdojojo, I hate to be so blunt but I really hate excuses. If your older children aren't old enough to wait until you're done bathing the toddler, then they're young enough they can be in the tub TOO. Then you have all your kids in front of you. If your "opposite gender" kids are old enough that you don't want to bathe them together, they're also old enough to FETCH you a towel or wait 5 minutes.
Also, if you forget a towel... suck it up. I have a 5 year old, and until I was comfortable leaving him alone in the tub (while I listen to him play, even still), I NEVER, read NEVER left him in there alone - no, not even "for a second". If I forgot a towel, then I still pulled him out AND drained the water before I ran to get one, or just carried him at arm's length, dripping, to grab a towel.

You CAN manage. People love making excuses, such as why they "have" to bottle prop or "have" to leave a kid in the tub for a second alone... but to be quite frank, you never HAVE to do these things - you CHOOSE to, and then CHOOSE to pretend that it was necessary.

SamanthaAgain

on Jul 14, 2009 at 9:29 AM

My friend's cousin just lost his 11 month old daughter because his wife "had" to finish the ironing while the baby was in the bathtub. There is NO excuse. NONE. I'm by myself many evenings giving the baby a bath. I've had the phone ring, I've had people knock on the front door, I've forgotten towels, I've had neighborhood kids screaming for my attention, I've had catfights break out in the living room, the list goes on. I will NOT leave my toddler alone in the bathtub! Ever!

prettymama0607

on Jul 14, 2009 at 11:44 AM

where can you buy the soft spout cover?

angie2568

on Jul 14, 2009 at 12:12 PM

I was just reading through these. I am a 30 yr old single mother of three blessings. 11 yr daughter, 5 yr son and 18 month son. I sometimes help my daughter with rinsing her hair, so i put toddler in highchair with and toy. (not food b/c if water is on or if you have multi-levels or even if bathroom is at one end of house you can't hear if they get choked on food). My 5 yr old sits in hall facing other way so he will not see my daughter with no clothes on. So with multi kids its very easy to do baths.

But yes some parents don't truly realize where hazzards are. But accidents do and will happen to us all.

Even at pools when kids cough bc they have swallowed water - if they go home and they become sleepy - call doctor and go for a visit that is a sign of "live drowning". You can drown on a tspn of water or less, so please if your kids have been coughing bc they swallowed water in pool, bath/shower, ocean/lake/pond etc - don't be afraid to call doctor or visit er or office.

ethans_momma06

on Jul 14, 2009 at 12:34 PM

There is never an excuse to leave a toddler in the tub alone, EVER. Sometimes the things you have to do for safety's sake are an inconvinience but I would take my clothes being drenched, wasting a little water over a preventable accident/death.

Please realize exactly what the results could be when you take any kind of action. Is it worth the life of your child to not get your shirt wet? To re fill the tub?

momoflilangel

on Jul 14, 2009 at 1:05 PM

We bought our spout cover from Target. It is a yellow ducky one. And we also use a bath mat too.

on Jul 14, 2009 at 1:59 PM

I'll out-blunt you Christie....if you can't even manage to stay in the bathroom with a 2 year old while they're sitting in a tub of water that they could easily and quickly drown in, maybe you just shouldn't have more kids. For effs sake.