More kids getting hurt in shopping cart-related accidents

Researchers estimate a child is hurt every 22 minutes

A trip to the store is turning into a trip to the emergency room for many parents. A new study finds no decrease in the overall rate of shopping cart-related injuries among kids.

"What we're still seeing, actually, over the past 10 years we've seen an increase in the number of injuries. It went from 20,000 to 24,000," explained Dr. Richard So, a pediatrician at Cleveland Clinic Children's.

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Nationwide Children's Hospital researchers estimate a child is hurt in a shopping cart-related injury every 22 minutes. They say there is also a related increase in the number of concussions and closed head injuries being treated in U.S. emergency rooms.

A majority of the injuries happen to kids who are 4 and under. Researchers say if you put your children in a shopping cart strap them in using the cart's restraint system and never leave them alone.

So says you can also look for alternatives.

"If there is more than one parent- sit in the stroller, said So. "If you can get the cart, personally myself I wait for the cart with the car. I will drive around the parking lot until I see that car and I will wait for those for my children because I know they are safer."

So says shopping carts with cars on the front are safer because they are much lower to the ground.

Complete findings for this study are in the journal Clinical Pediatrics.