Trampoline Advisory

A prominent pediatric group is calling on parents to get rid of trampolines to protect their children.

They might seem like a lot of fun for kids or all ages, but it turns out they are causing a lot of injuries as well. And that's why the American Academy of Pediatrics is calling on parents to get rid of trampolines in their back yards.

Although trampolines are very popular, they are also behind a rise in pediatric injuries seen in ERs across the country. In a new advisory, the American Academy of Pediatrics reports almost 98,000 trampoline related injuries in 2009, the last year on record. The injury rates are higher in kids than adults using trampolines. Researchers also found that the vast majority of trampoline accidents occur when more than one child is on the trampoline at a time. And in children under 5, nearly half of their injuries resulted in fractures or dislocations. Many of these injuries occurred even when children on a trampoline were being supervised by adults. As surprising as this sounds, even the safety nets that come with many trampolines didn't do much to cut down on the number of injuries.

So because of these injury rates, this expert group of children's doctors is recommending that pediatricians advise parents against recreational trampoline use.