Most holiday kids' injuries everyday mishaps

It's not fireworks blasts or Christmas tree decorations that cause the most injuries for children during holidays, but everyday injuries like falls, a new U.S. study finds.

Doctors, public health officials and the media have emphasized prevention of holiday-related injuries, such as using fireworks safely to celebrate Canada Day or avoiding cuts when carving pumpkins for Halloween.

But in the May issue of the journal Pediatrics, researchers in the U.S. concluded most injuries were from sports, recreation, or falls and scrapes at home that were not specifically holiday related.

From 1997 to 2006, children and teens aged 19 and under suffered an estimated 5.7 million injuries that required treatment at an emergency room, researchers from Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio, found.

The researchers called it the first study to directly compare injuries sustained on eight common holidays.

When they analyzed the injuries, they found most happened in the five days around Labour Day, followed by Memorial Day, Fourth of July and Halloween. Injuries from fireworks did occur on the Fourth of July, but these made up only 2.9 per cent of injuries in the five-day period around the holiday.

"This study found that injuries that occur during holidays were more commonly associated with general rather than holiday-specific activities," study author Christy Collins, a senior research associate at the hospital's Center for Injury Research and Policy and her co-authors concluded.

Holiday hijinks risk

The focus should not be on preventing injuries that are specific to a given holiday but "everyday" injuries such as slipping on stairs, injuries from bicycle riding or playing football, the researchers said.

"Parents must continue to be watchful for injury risks, even in the excitement of holiday celebration, and adolescents should be cautioned against becoming reckless because of the holiday atmosphere," the study's authors suggested.

"Through combined efforts to prevent injuries from both general and holiday-specific risks, rather than focusing only on holiday-specific risks, the rate of pediatric injuries could be reduced."

The most common injuries were:

• Lacerations.
• Contusions and abrasions.
• Fractures.
• Sprains and strains.

The majority of injuries were to the face, fingers, hands and head.