Report says infants should have their own airline seat
Infants who sit on an adult’s lap during flights are more prone to injury than other children, a report says.
A study, presented at an American Academy of Pediatrics meeting in San Francisco this week, was conducted by Dr. Alexandre Rotta who is chief of pediatric critical care medicine at University Hospitals Rainbow Babies and Children’s Hospital in Cleveland.
“Pediatric medical events on commercial airlines are relatively infrequent given the amount of passenger traffic, however unrestrained children, especially lap infants, are more likely to sustain an in-flight injury particularly during meal service or turbulence,” he said.
Rotta led a team analyzing data from more than 114,000 in-flight medical incidents worldwide from January 2009 to January 2014.
It found 10% of all incidents involved children and 3% were in-flight injuries.
It also said 35% of all children’s injuries occurred among infants under two years old.
About 40% of injuries were caused by burns.
Rotta wrote that many of these injuries are preventable by using child restraints and avoiding aisle seats.
Infants should also have their own seat, Rotta said.
“It is my hope the information we discovered will promote the development of preventative strategies and travel policies to protect the health of all pediatric airplane passengers, especially these most vulnerable infants,” he said.
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