Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Playground
  • Surfacing
  • Parks
  • Athletics
  • Aquatics
  • Play
Home
  • Playground
  • Surfacing
  • Parks
  • Athletics
  • Aquatics
  • Play
  • How Rubber is Changing Playground Equipment Technology
  • The Evolution of Playground Surfacing
  • Playground Turf
  • Playground Supervision: How Much Is Too Much?
  • Trends in Playground Design and Amenities
  • 6 Steps to Your Perfect Park and Playground
  • How To Treat Serious Playground Injuries

Breadcrumb

  1. Home
  2. Playground
  3. Safety
  4. How To Treat Serious Playground Injuries

How To Treat Serious Playground Injuries

Safety
February 15, 2022
Profile picture for user PGP
By PGP on
  • facebook-f
  • twitter
  • envelope
  • print
361
How To Treat Serious Playground Injuries

How To Treat Serious Playground Injuries

As a parent, your top priority is to keep your child from any harm. However, accidents can happen at any time, especially on the playground. When your child is crying from a playground injury it's normal to panic, but you need to stay on top of the situation. Therefore, you need to relax, take deep breaths, and keep calm. After that, assess the injury and provide necessary first aid care. 

It would also help when you verbalize and let your child understand what you're doing to calm them down. Call your child's pediatrician to find out and discover more information on what type of first aid treatment you need to do. It pays to have a background in first aid care when you have a child. But, it's okay if you don't, this guide will help you. Here are some first aid treatments you can do while waiting for help.

  • Black Eye

It’s normal to see some discoloration, swelling, and bruising. There can be temporary visual impairment. Your child may also experience headaches and neck aches. Wrap the ice on a clean cloth. Put it in the eye for 15 minutes only for every hour. Keep their head elevated above heart level to drain the blood and reduce the bruising.  

Your child may take painkillers, but you need to consult with a pediatrician first. Seek immediate medical attention if these symptoms persist: 

  • There is a deformity in the eye or the face 
  • Your kids become dizzy
  • Clear fluid is leaking from the ears 
  • When there is a change in behavior
  • Broken Bones

Children's bones are more supple compared to adults' bones. It can split, crack or bend. A fracture is when the bone breaks or cracks. You will notice swelling, bruising, difficulty in moving, could look twisted or bent, have grating noise and lose strength. Get a pad and cover the injured limb. After that get a triangular bandage to keep the limb in place. 

Let your kid understand that they should not move the injured arm around to ease the pain. If it’s a leg fracture, do the same thing but tie the injured leg to the other leg. 

It’s an open fracture when you see a bone protruding or there is a wound. You need to control the bleeding. Get a sterile cloth and cover it. Be sure not to put pressure on the bone. Don’t move your kid while waiting for medical assistance.

  • Busted Lip

Find the source of the bleeding. Stop the bleeding by getting a clean cloth, and putting it over the injured lip. Do this for five to seven minutes until the bleeding stops. Use a cold compress if there’s swelling. You need to call the doctor for a deeper cut and if the bleeding doesn’t stop after seven minutes.

  • Cuts

You may use a towel and apply pressure on the wound. When the bleeding stops, wash it with water and cover the wound with a plaster. Clean cuts can be managed at home. It would help if your kid gets a tetanus shot. You should also watch out for signs of infections as a precautionary measure. If it’s a deep cut or the bleeding doesn’t stop, seek medical help immediately.

  • Friction Burns

Assess the burn. If it’s on the top layer of the skin, it’s considered a minor burn. Run cold water on the wound to clean it and cool it down. Dry it with a sterile cloth. Apply antibiotic ointment to reduce inflammation and to kill bacteria. Wrap it loosely with gauze and leave some space for the wound to breathe. Call the pediatrician to prescribe a painkiller if necessary. Seek immediate medical attention if: 

  • There is severe damage to the outer layer of the skin
  • The burn is more than 3 inches.
  • The burn is in a sensitive area.
  • Head Injuries

Get immediate help and while you’re waiting, see if your kid is breathing, if not, do Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Check for any signs of bleeding. Don’t remove the object stuck on their head to keep the brain from bleeding out. Get a clean cloth and cover it. Don’t shake or move your child unless you need to get them somewhere safe.

  • Knocked-Out Tooth

Apply a cold piece of cloth if there is bleeding. If your child is old enough, let them bite on the gauze. You can also get them an ice pop. Call the pediatrician for pain medicine if needed. If their tooth is broken, rinse their mouth immediately with warm water. Call the dentist and schedule an appointment.

  • Nosebleed

Let your child sit and have them lean slightly forward. Don’t lay them down as blood could block the airway. Pinch the soft part of the nose and let your child breathe through their mouth. Keep the pressure on the nose for ten minutes. Don’t let them blow their nose or rub it to avoid further irritation.  

Seek immediate medical attention when this happens:  

  • If the bleeding doesn’t stop after two tries of applying pressure, ten minutes each.
  • If there is bruising
  • If your child is feeling dizzy or weak.
  • Splinter

Don’t touch the splinter with your bare hands. Use a tweezer. Follow the same angle of how the splinter punctured the wound. Gently pinch the splinter at the base of your kid’s skin and take it out. If you were able to remove it, squeeze the skin and let it bleed. This is to flush out any particles left on the wound. Wash the wound with water and put a plaster over it. 

Conclusion:

It's okay to let your kids run around the playground. Let them enjoy it because it's part of their childhood. Also, you should explain to them that getting injured is also part of it. Do the necessary first aid care while waiting for the medical team to arrive. And to avoid these injuries, you need to teach your children to be careful at all times.

  • Add new comment

This information about serious injuries is a bit concerning

Over the last 10 years there has been an effort to develop a benefit/risk assessment process for sport and recreation including play and playgrounds. One of the tenants of risk assessment is the setting of an injury threshold that would be acceptable. There is a need to be very specific in defining injury thresholds to allow designers, manufactures and purchasers to know that they are talking about the same acceptability. It is for that reason I have a concern that splinters and nose bleeds are grouped with broken bones and concussion under the title Serious Injury.

The most likely candidate for defining injury thresholds will come from the Abbreviated Injury Scale system below.

HIC

Serious Playground Injuries

You will see from the AIS curves for head injury and risk of injury that the accepted threshold of 1000 HIC is a risk of 3% risk critical, 18% risk life-threatening, 55% serious, 89% risk moderate and mild (not shown). 

Injuries greater than serious might not be acceptable to parents and is definitely not acceptable to the CPSC.

I think you might consider a follow-up to the current article starting with a definition acceptable to CPSC for serious injury as published in CFR 1115.6.

“(c) Serious injury or death. The term “serious injury” is not defined in the CPSA. The Commission believes that the term includes not only the concept of “grievous bodily injury,” defined at §1115.12(d), but also any other significant injury. Injuries necessitating hospitalization which require actual medical or surgical treatment, fractures, lacerations requiring sutures, concussions, injuries to the eye, ear, or internal organs requiring medical treatment, and injuries necessitating absence from school or work of more than one day are examples of situations in which the Commission shall presume that such a serious injury has occurred. To determine whether an unreasonable risk of serious injury or death exists, the firm should evaluate chronic or long term health effects as well as immediate injuries.”

The importance of this and your article is that for a parent that is concern for their child and prevention of the same injury occurring to another child with an injury that meets this definition is invited to inform the manufacturer, if their name is available. They are also encouraged to report the injury directly to the CPSC by going to www.cpsc.gov on the home page and currently there is an orange tab of the right hand side of the site where you can report an unsafe product including a playground, play structure or playground surface that cause the serious injury. Although getting the child to the appropriate treatment is essential, reporting and preventing future injuries becomes a public service to your neighbours.

Profile picture for user Rolf Huber
Wed, 05/18/2022 - 15:52
Rolf Huber
  • Reply

Add new comment

About text formats

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Web page addresses and email addresses turn into links automatically.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.
Profile picture for user PGP
PGP
Published 11 months ago
Last updated 2 months ago
361
5
min read
A- A+
  • facebook-f
  • twitter
  • envelope
  • print

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter

More About

ASTM Balloting
Dec 01, 2015
Safety

Playground Surfacing Requirements and Injury Reduction: How much of either is enough?

Kenneth Kutska
Jul 01, 2006
Safety

Check your SPF, ASAP

Playground Magazine
Playground Safety Quiz
May 03, 2022
Safety

Playground Safety Quiz

Joann Robertson
The Most Dangerous Playground Equipment for Kids
Nov 30, 2021
Safety

The Most Dangerous Playground Equipment for Kids

PGP
Too Much Playground Supervision
May 01, 2009
Safety

Playground Supervision: How Much Is Too Much?

David Spease
Safety is Everyone's Responsibility
Jan 01, 2003
Safety

Safety is Everyone's Responsibility

Playground Magazine
Writing a Playground Safety Rulebook
Nov 14, 2018
Safety

Writing a Playground Safety Rulebook

Grace Carter
Dec 01, 2005
Safety

How playground regulations and standards are messing up children's play

Playground Magazine
Why Equipment Complies With Safety Criteria
Sep 01, 2002
Safety

Why Equipment Complies With Safety Criteria

Playground Magazine
Proverb: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions
Sep 22, 2017
Safety

Proverb: The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions

Kenneth Kutska
What's the Real Safety Issue in Major Urban Areas?
Feb 14, 2013
Safety

What's the Real Safety Issue in Major Urban Areas?

Kenneth Kutska
Children playing safe on a playground
Jan 10, 2020
Safety

Keep Your Children Safe on the Playground

Lewis Robinson

Safety Professionals

National Program for Playground Safety
National Program for Playground Safety
Organization
More
Safety Play, Inc.
Safety Play, Inc.
Services
More
International Playground Safety Institute
International Playground Safety Institute
Organization
More
ADA.gov
ADA.gov
Organization
More
ASTM International
ASTM International
Organization
More
Playground Safety Services, Inc.
Playground Safety Services, Inc.
Services
More
Slyde the Playground Hound
Slyde the Playground Hound
Organization
More
United States Consumer Product Safety Commission
United States Consumer Product Safety Commission
Organization
More
Home

Follow Us

Play and playground news and information since 2001

  • instagram
  • facebook-f
  • twitter
  • pinterest
  • linkedin

Company

  • Playground Magazine
  • Contributors
  • Advertise
  • Subscribe

Copyright © 2001 - 2023 Playground Professionals, LLC

Footer menu

  • Contact
  • Privacy
  • Terms and conditions