Health Watch: High Chair Injuries On The Rise

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- If you have a baby or toddler in the family, you know the importance of high chairs. But in Health Watch, a new study finds that high chair injuries are on the rise.

Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, OH found high chair injuries have increased by 22 percent in the U.S. over the past decade. Most of the children were injured after they fell out of the high chair.

Researchers say that's because some parents don't use the straps that come with the chairs.

"Not only did the numbers increase by more than 20 percent, but if you looked at injuries to the head, those increased by almost 90 percent," Gary Smith of Nationwide Children's Hospital said. "The top three things that I would recommend to a parent to prevent injuries from falls from a high chair is strap your child in, strap your child in, strap your child in."

Emergency rooms in the United States see an average of more than 9,400 high chair-related injuries each year.