Trampoline Safety Tips

Trampolines are one of the leading causes of pediatric fractures seen in our office! With more and more children jumping on trampolines at home and in the neighborhood, we would like to provide parents with trampoline safety tips from the American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons® or AAOS.

We encourage limiting trampoline use in general, but to reduce the number and severity of injuries resulting from children using the trampoline please remember these guidelines:

• Provide careful adult supervision for children at all times
• Allow only one participant at a time to use the trampoline
• Refrain from allowing children under 6 years on trampolines
• Keep trampoline jumping surface at ground level  – risk of injury increases with height of falls
• Somersaults or high-risk maneuvers should be avoided without proper supervision, instruction, and spotting; these maneuvers should be attempted only with proper use of protective equipment, such as a harness
• Regularly check equipment for safety conditions – replace damaged parts and ensure that supporting bars, strings, and surrounding landing surfaces have adequate protective padding

Please stay safe while having fun! While we don’t mean to limit fun, we are wary of trampolines for good reason. Trampoline use results in hundreds of thousands of injuries each year with even substantially trained trampoline athletes sustaining serious injuries. However, most trampoline injuries occur in the home environment, with more than 90 percent of these occurring in children usually between the ages of 5 and 14 years.

More than half of injuries occur on the mat of the trampoline and three-fourths of injuries involve two or more children using the trampoline at the same time. What does this mean to the parents of our patients? It means don’t rely upon safety enclosure nets to prevent injuries – no data show reduced injuries for trampolines outfitted with nets and other safety equipment! Additionally, even the force inflicted on the bones of smaller children by “double-bouncing” is enough to cause bone fractures without further injuries or falls. Additionally, attempting somersaults and flips on the trampoline are among the most common causes of traumatic/permanent head, neck, and spinal injuries.

To read more about Trampoline Safety and Injuries, please read the full article from the AAOS.

http://www.cpsc.gov/pagefiles/137868/085%20trampoline%20safety.pdf

©September 1996 American Academy of Orthopaedic Surgeons®. Revised June 2005, September 2010, and September 2015