With the number of kids injured by shopping carts every year, the importance of shopping cart safety can not be under stated.
Univision has a great article on keeping your baby safe and comfortable with a good reminder about shopping cart safety.
STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. — Despite explicit warning labels on infant car seats, parents regularly misuse car seats when they place them — baby in tow — on top of shopping carts. A new website, Shopping Cart Safety, is designed as a resource for parents to learn about the issue and locate nearby stores that offer carts designed specifically to hold car carriers and keep infants safe.
Article from SILive.com
Many of us have seen parents set an infant carrier or car seat – baby in tow – on top of the shopping cart.
The temptation is understandable.
You’re in a rush to get the shopping done, and you need both hands free to maneuver the cart and grab the items on your grocery list. But if parents knew just how often the combination of kids and shopping carts resulted in serious injuries, they wouldn’t take the risk.
According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), shopping carts are the leading cause of head injuries in young children – surpassing injuries from high chairs, strollers, changing tables, baby gates and other equipment. The CPSC estimates that about 16,000 children under the age of five fall out of shopping carts each year and nearly 1,000 of those injuries involve falling infant carriers. Infant carriers are simply not meant to be placed on top of the cart. When bumped or jostled, they can tip or fall out of the cart entirely, resulting in serious head trauma for the baby inside.
Some parents erroneously assume the latch on their infant carrier is meant to be used with shopping carts, but that’s not the case. There are more than 100 different types of carts used in the United States, and no carrier can fit them all properly. Plus, manufacturers of car seats and infant carriers even warn against using their products with shopping carts. Unfortunately, parents often don’t notice the warning stickers on car seats and shopping carts – even though they display a big, red “X” over the image of an infant carrier on the cart!
A fall from the cart isn’t the only risk; trying to force the carrier to fit onto a shopping cart can also damage the car seat’s latching mechanism, making it less effective in a car accident.
So, how can parents keep their kids safe? Some experts suggest leaving the baby at home while you shop, but that’s just not a realistic expectation for most families. Fortunately, it’s possible to bring the baby shopping and avoid cart injuries.
Wear Your Baby
The first solution is simply to wear your baby. There are many different types of carriers available, from the Asian-inspired mei tais to ring slings and wraps. Baby-wearing has its advantages: Your baby is physically close to you, and your arms are free to push the cart and reach for groceries. However, it’s essential to practice.
If you are not used to wearing your baby, it is important you find the carrier that is right for you and start by reading the manufacturer’s instructions. While many people love wraps and slings, they can sometimes make it difficult for parents to reach low shelves and lift heavy grocery items. If you find baby-wearing causes lower back problems or makes it difficult to carry a handbag, you might try another option for shopping trips.
Dock Your Baby
Another safe solution involves a new cart attachment called Safe-Dock, which is being used in a growing number of stores nationwide. Safe-Dock is the first universal infant carrier docking station for shopping carts. It is permanently mounted to the top basket of the shopping cart, with a heavy-duty harness that buckles in the infant carrier as easily as a seat belt. Many parents like this option because the baby is facing them, allowing for parent-baby interaction – without “baby weight” limiting their mobility. And because the infant isn’t sitting directly on the cart, it is more sanitary than previous in-store infant carriers. Like baby-wearing, it also conserves space in the main part of the shopping cart, so you can actually use it for groceries.
Safe-Docks are currently used at major retailers across the country. You can find stores with Safe-Dock near you at shoppingcartsafety.com, where you can also learn more about this important safety issue.
Whatever your preference for getting baby around – and getting your errands done – it’s important to keep the number-one rule in mind: safety first!
Paul Giampavolo is a leading expert on shopping cart safety and is chairman of the American Society for Testing and Materials’ (ASTM) Shopping Cart Subcommittee. He is also president of The Safe-Strap Company, which has been committed to child safety since it invented the world’s first child safety seat belt for shopping carts in 1983.
Article from Green Child
In my pre-parenting life, the top of the shopping cart was reserved for eggs, bread, and my sometimes clunky purse. Now as a mom, I look at the shopping cart quite differently. I look at a trip to the supermarket from a new perspective entirely.
It is not so much about the children shivering through the two frozen food aisles or the occasional wailing outburst. It is not about the few snarky shoppers with their unkind comments about kids. It isn’t even about the sad fact that I sometimes resort to shaking down the deli guy for three slices of white American to bribe my brood to make it to the checkout peacefully. What it is about is safety.
Each year, there are over 24,000 visits to the emergency room involving children who have sustained injuries from a shopping cart. That is a staggering number. The saddest part about this statistic is that some of these hospital visits involve head trauma, serious injury, and death.
I recently had the opportunity to speak with Paul Giampavolo. Paul may not be a household name but he has had a tremendous impact on the evolution of safer shopping carts.
Paul’s story began in 1972 in a ShopRite in Dumont, NJ. Paul was stocking shelves when he ran to the aid of a toddler falling from a shopping cart. The child was uninjured but Paul never forgot that incident.
A decade later, Giampavolo was watching a television segment on shopping cart falls and children. Paul remembered what he had witnessed working in the grocery store and he came up with an idea. He conceptualized a safety belt for shopping carts.
Paul Giampavolo worked on a design. He tirelessly worked to let stores know how necessary these safety belts are. Today, Giampavolo is President of Safe Strap Co in Wharton, NJ. His vision led to the design and mass production of safety belts for all shopping carts. Safe Strap continues to pioneer the design of a variety of safe products. Safe Strap manufactures a dock for infant carriers, baby changing stations, and a pallet guard. Paul is also the Chairman of ASTM International Committee on Consumer Products.
Shopping cart related accidents continue to occur. It is important as parents, grandparents, and caretakers, that we to know how to keep our children safe in the retail world. Paul has some great suggestions on how we can reduce the risk of injury.
For very small infants, never balance your car seat on top of the shopping cart. Never place the car seat inside the basket of the cart.
If you intend to bring your baby and the car seat inside the store, look for a safe-dock attached to the cart. They are made of hard plastic and the docks resemble the shape of a car seat. They have a hard buckle to which you can attach and safely lock your infant carrier or car seat to the cart.
If you are not sure what stores may have these safe-docks or are looking for a store with these safety features, visit shoppingcartsafety.com and enter your zip code. You will be directed to stores that have these features.
If you wish a store had safe-docks, let a store manager know. Retailers often value your feedback. You can also send them an email through the website shoppingcartsafety.com to let them know you would like to see these features at their store.
When shopping with a toddler or small child, make certain you select a shopping cart that has a working safety strap. Make certain that both straps are there and the buckle is in working order. If the buckle is broken or cracked, select another cart.
Do not allow even the most agile of children to sit or stand in the basket of the cart.
Never permit a child to push other children in the cart. Children should not child climb in and out of the cart either.
Never let your child lie down near or in front of a shopping cart.
Avoid allowing your child to stand on the front, side, or back of the cart. Arms and legs can become pinched or caught. Children can slide under the wheels. Children have been killed by a shopping cart tipping over.
Never leave your child unsupervised near or inside the cart.
If you have more than one child with you, locate a cart that has a pretend car that they can ride in or a separate attached area for children. You may feel like you need a commercial driver’s license to operate some of these carts but they are much safer for your family.
Parents are not perfect. All parents make mistakes. Sharing information on the most up-to-date safe practices, however, can help to reduce injury to our children and make our stores safer for our smallest, most vulnerable consumers.
Article from NJ.com
Going to the grocery store or a big box establishment as a new mom toting along a small baby is such an overwhelming trip to take. And being too tired and frazzled doesn’t matter when food and diapers are needed. Oftentimes, parents will rest the infant car seat on the front section of the shopping cart, not realizing the safety risks this poses. In fact, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, falls from these carts are the leading cause of head injuries in young children, surpassing accidents with high chairs and changing tables. Carts can also tip over. Now nine local stores, with more promising to join this effort, are participating in a national campaign to keep babies safe.
The Safe-Dock, created by New Jersey based Safe-Strap Co., is attached to the front basket of a cart, bolted in place, ready to hold any kind of infant car seat carrier. “There is a 50 pound maximum weight limit for it,” explains Bob Rainville, manager at Big Y in Tolland, one of the stores using the docking system, along with retailers such as Costco in Milford, Shop Rite in Enfield and Whole Foods Market in Danbury. “It’s an easy transition from the car to the carriage and it just makes it easier for the customer to shop.” The carrier is held tight by a substantial harness, snapped in place. “It’s more sanitary, too, because the child is staying in their own unit,” says Rainville. Representatives from the Safe-Strap Company, which first designed a one-of-a-kind seat-belt for shopping carts in 1983, say they conduct rigorous testing on their products made to promote children’s safety.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that approximately 23,000 children are seen in emergency rooms for shopping cart injuries each year. In 2011, a 3-month-old infant in Georgia died after her car seat toppled off the cart, after it hit a speed bump in a parking lot. “That alarms me a lot,” says new mom Megan DeMonte of Enfield, shopping with her infant daughter, Gabriella. She recently discovered the Safe-Dock carts at her nearby Walmart in East Windsor: “That’s amazing. I’d rather do that than having to lug out a stroller every single time I go to a store.” Parents can head to http://www.shoppingcartsafety.com for a complete list of participating stores, and also write a note to a favorite spot, requesting that they, too, use Safe-Dock. Some parents mistakenly think the latching mechanism on the underside of the car seat will lock it to the cart but that is not always the case.
Rainville thinks the Safe-Dock system is a great addition to the store: “I can judge the success of it by the amount that they’re being used and the ones that we have are used pretty frequently. So, I’d say it’s been a homerun for us so far.” We parents know how to juggle. Anything that makes our daily routine a little easier — and keeps our kids secure — is a win-win. DeMonte, standing with a Safe-Dock cart, agrees: “It’s a lot easier for the mom to get around.”
Article from Hartford Courant
Going to the grocery store or a big box establishment as a new mom toting along a small baby is such an overwhelming trip to take. And being too tired and frazzled doesn’t matter when food and diapers are needed. Oftentimes, parents will rest the infant car seat on the front section of the shopping cart, not realizing the safety risks this poses. In fact, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, falls from these carts are the leading cause of head injuries in young children, surpassing accidents with high chairs and changing tables. Carts can also tip over. Now nine local stores, with more promising to join this effort, are participating in a national campaign to keep babies safe.
The Safe-Dock, created by New Jersey based Safe-Strap Co., is attached to the front basket of a cart, bolted in place, ready to hold any kind of infant car seat carrier. “There is a 50 pound maximum weight limit for it,” explains Bob Rainville, manager at Big Y in Tolland, one of the stores using the docking system, along with retailers such as Costco in Milford, Shop Rite in Enfield and Whole Foods Market in Danbury. “It’s an easy transition from the car to the carriage and it just makes it easier for the customer to shop.” The carrier is held tight by a substantial harness, snapped in place. “It’s more sanitary, too, because the child is staying in their own unit,” says Rainville. Representatives from the Safe-Strap Company, which first designed a one-of-a-kind seat-belt for shopping carts in 1983, say they conduct rigorous testing on their products made to promote children’s safety.
The American Academy of Pediatrics reports that approximately 23,000 children are seen in emergency rooms for shopping cart injuries each year. In 2011, a 3-month-old infant in Georgia died after her car seat toppled off the cart, after it hit a speed bump in a parking lot. “That alarms me a lot,” says new mom Megan DeMonte of Enfield, shopping with her infant daughter, Gabriella. She recently discovered the Safe-Dock carts at her nearby Walmart in East Windsor: “That’s amazing. I’d rather do that than having to lug out a stroller every single time I go to a store.” Parents can head to http://www.shoppingcartsafety.com for a complete list of participating stores, and also write a note to a favorite spot, requesting that they, too, use Safe-Dock. Some parents mistakenly think the latching mechanism on the underside of the car seat will lock it to the cart but that is not always the case.
Rainville thinks the Safe-Dock system is a great addition to the store: “I can judge the success of it by the amount that they’re being used and the ones that we have are used pretty frequently. So, I’d say it’s been a homerun for us so far.” We parents know how to juggle. Anything that makes our daily routine a little easier — and keeps our kids secure — is a win-win. DeMonte, standing with a Safe-Dock cart, agrees: “It’s a lot easier for the mom to get around.”
Article from Fox CT
