[...] of fear. Like Barnes, I find it liberating to let go of worries. “When I realized that shopping carts are scarier than sharks, we went scuba diving,” Barnes says. In other words, don’t let fear prevent you from [...]

This is fairly common sense stuff … although I find myself telling my daughter “I know it’s fun, but it’s dangerous,” to so much stuff anymore.

I can see the belting for one simple reason – Sir Grabby Hands will attempt to climb out of the cart to get what he sees that he thinks he wants (mmm…pickles anyone? What about those cool looking pink eggs?), has since he was old enough to sit in a cart.
Most of these do seem like common sense though. Our preferred grocery store isn’t open too late, so either we go after work or the weekend. Thankfully, they charge a per unit price for his fave fruit (bananas) rather than a per lb price. Keeps him in his seat, and relatively quiet to boot, if I break off one banana and give it to him. (Have the peel as evidence that yeah, charge me for one more than is in the bunch). Otherwise I have to sneak those buggers into the cart!

The other day my son tripped on his feet. I’m considering the pros and cons of tatooing warnings on his soles just so that he can remember how to safely use his feet, because apparently that is the world we live in now.

Have we really gotten to the point that the AAP thinks that parents are so obtuse as to not know how to use a shopping cart? And will the AAP be providing me with a shopping helper so that I can avoid using the shopping cart altogether? When I go shopping alone with my 4 children under the age of 10, there is no way that I am going to turn into a Push-Me-Pull-Me while push a cart and pull a stroller. Here’s some advice for the AAP, if you give ridiculous advice, people will stop listening all together.

Grocery stores should have bigger aisles, so we can drive our SUVs through, and keep our delicate, atrophied children securely restrained within.

REALLY! Soon our kids won’t be able to play sports or attend any classes without first being warned about the myriad of possiblities that can go wrong.

“I realize that I just wrote about how important it is to strap babies into a seat on an airplane, but a shopping cart doesn’t travel at the same speed.” However, accidents due to turbulence (or any airplane accident) do not send 23,000 kids to the emergency room. In this way, your worry about airplanes is much more unreasonable.

I agree people get too paranoid, but the way I see this warning (from the AAP) is just that – a warning. You have to watch your kid and make sure they don’t try and climb out.

As I said in comments to the airline piece, we all have our individual concerns and comfort levels. What works for one family, doesn’t work for another.

Sure, there aren’t as many kids in ERs because of airline turbulence. In those cases, they’re generally in intensive care. The force of the trajectory on an airplane would be much stronger and therefore, more dangerous.

Also, by writing “I realize that I just wrote about how important it is to strap babies into a seat on an airplane,” I was pointing out how some might find my attitudes about safety inconsistent. It’s true. We’re all inconsistent. That’s human nature and I’m no different.

In the comments to the airline piece, I posted this link.

http://www.faa.gov/passengers/fly_safe/turbulence/

Basically, over a 28 year period, 3 people died because of airline turbulence. (I don’t know if any of these 3 people were kids). As far as deaths from shopping carts, all I could find was this,

http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/cgi/content/full/118/2/e540

This states that deaths have been reported from shopping carts tipping over, but does not state any kind of number.

Also, as far as airplanes, over the same 28 year period, 298 people were seriously injured (approx 10 to 11 a year), and there are about 58 people a year who are injured (including non-serious injuries.) When you make statements like “they are generally in intensive care” when you talk about turbulence accidents, you are spreading fear with no real information.

And I know you made the statement about how you are being inconsistent, and how everyone can be inconsistent, but this is a huge difference. Also, in your airplane article you sounded very judgmental over people who put their kids in their laps, and in this piece you are talking about how the warning from the AAP is cause to believe we are becoming too cautious.

yeah, that is right…it is a gender thing, I think…

My two year old “pushes” the cart in front of me. (or under me I guess), this way, she is not only “helping” but is well controlled. Sure, we walk very slowly but it is better than her running up and down the isles (like a boy) like she used to.

It`s not a gender thing. It`s a personality thing. My daughter has always been more busy/independent/active than many boys her age. Whenever I hear people who are pregnant and expecting a girl assuming that she will be easier to deal with than a boy, I wonder why this is. My daughter may not be as rough and physical as some boys her age but she definitely is not one to sit still.

Sorry about that. There are a couple:
http://tinyurl.com/6g7mta
http://tinyurl.com/3ytnp9a

Also, my main issue here is how you seem to think it is silly to be worried about shopping carts, and shocked that they allow lap kids on airplanes, where (as far as I can see from what I’ve been reading) shopping carts are clearly far more dangerous than airplanes.

As someone with 3 kids, I wear the youngest and the older 2 walk. But the olders are 7 and 5 so they know how to behave in a grocery store. (Youngling is 2 y/o, and yes, I still wear him).

When it was just the older 2, though, it was wear the baby and older goes in the cart.

these pissing contests of interpretation of statistics are silly…I don’t see the point…

@Jenny – I see your point. However, the numbers are so incredibly low. (The two articles trying to convince us that lap children should be disallowed had to reach back to 1989 for an example.) I do agree that there is a lot of data we would need for a fair comparison (how many kids are injured due to being lap children, how many kids ride in carts vs. as lap kids, etc.). I guess I was thinking more on a public health basis.

Ultimately I still believe that the AAP issuing this warning was the best thing they could have done. With the information they had, they really had no other choice.

what bob said.

Quite frankly, I’m shocked at the tone of much of this debate. I stumbled upon this site while doing research on child cart injuries in the attempt to bring more attention to the issue in my store. I work for a major retail company and my job responsibilities entail having to record all injuries in our store. I have seen many kids fall out of carts and it makes me sick everytime. God forbid you HEAR one hit…. it can stay with you.
By demeaning the message by talking about ‘back in my day…’ or ‘pretty soon we won’t….’, you lose the point of the message which was to simply keep kids safe. Honestly, its a split second and their heads are hitting concrete. Is that really worth an arguement?