This document discusses child and parent behaviors related to ingestion incidents. It notes that children put an average of 26 items in their mouths per day, spending an average of 1 hour and 3 minutes mouthing objects. While caregivers overestimate children's understanding of risks, 80% of injuries occur during supervision. The document proposes several injury mitigation possibilities, including designing less hazardous shapes, adding guards to slow access, using warnings, and enhancing diagnostics through dye or radio-opaque markings. It emphasizes a safety hierarchy with design, guards, and warnings as most effective approaches.
Child and Parent Behaviors Involved in Ingestion Incidents
1. Child and Parent Behaviors
Involved in Ingestion Incidents
Jonathan Midgett, Ph.D.
Office of Hazard Identification and Reduction
ICPHSO, Arlington, VA, USA
February 27, 2013
These comments are those of the CPSC staff, they have not been reviewed
or approved by, and may not necessarily reflect, the views of the
Commission.
2. “Why are you eating that?!”
• Nutrition, comfort, exploration, teething
• Primary circular reactions
• 26 items per day peak average (Smith &
Norris, 2003)
– Average daily mouthing time: 1 hour, 3 minutes
– Longest maximum mouthing time:
• On toys= 03:46:46
• On other objects= 02:57:58
5. “Look out!”
• 1 injury per 167 hours awake (Garzon, Lee
& Homan, 2007)
Percent of injuries occurring
during supervision:
80%
6. “Peek-a-boo!”
• Out of view: 20% of awake time (78 min.)
• Unsupervised time:
– 4-5 year olds: 8% of awake time (32 min.)
– 2-3 year olds: 1% of awake time (5 min.)
(Morrongiello, Corbett, McCourt & Johnson, 2006)
10. CPSC Stands For Safety
Jonathan Midgett, Ph.D.
Children’s Hazards Team Coordinator
Office of Hazard Identification and Reduction
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
5 Research Place
Rockville, MD 20850
(301) 987-2561
jmidgett@cpsc.gov
Editor's Notes
Nutritive and non-nutritive sucking Piaget Smith & Norris, 2003: 26 items peak per day is 6-9 months olds. Longest mouthing events: 6-9 month olds
Reference: Davis CM. Self selection of diet by newly weaned infants: an experimental study. Am J Dis Child 1928;36(4):651-79. Davis CM. Results of the self-selection of diets by young children. Can Med Assoc J 1939;41:257-61.
Quotes from Garzon, Lee & Homan, 2007: “ Although parents are knowledgeable about home injury hazards, they often overestimate the young child’s ability to identify injury hazards and high-risk situations (Morrongiello, Midgett, & Shields, 2001).” “ Additionally, many parents are not aware of how children’s behaviors result in increased injury risk (Morrongiello & Dayler, 1996; Morrongiello & Kiriakou, 2004).” “ Therefore, children under 5 years are vulnerable to home injury in situations where their parents are not knowledgeable about potential hazards or when they are unaware of their child’s abilities (Saluja et al., 2004). Despite the promotion of adult supervision to prevent childhood injury, little research describes the relationship between parental supervisory practice and injury occurrence in young children, and there are no accepted standards for age-appropriate child supervision (Peterson, Ewigman, & Kivilhand, 1993; Wills et al., 1997).”
Quotes from Garzon, Lee & Homan (2007) (n=100 families): “ 1 injury for every 167 hours spent awake in the home.” (1-4 year olds) “ Parents reported using supervision as a means for decreasing child injury risk, but 80% of the injuries occurred when the child was supervised. These findings suggest that some injuries may not be preventable solely by parental attention and close physical proximity.”
Quote from Morrongiello, Corbett, McCourt & Johnson (2006) (n=40 families): “ Children were supervised more often than unsupervised but were completely out of view of supervisors about 20% of their awake time, and supervision was poorer when out of view of supervisors. Older children (4–5 years) were unsupervised (8% of awake time) more often than younger children (2–3 years; 1%), were more often out of view of supervisors than younger children, and received poorer supervision than younger children when out of view of supervisors.”