Pediatricians continue to discourage backyard trampoline use

Even if you think your kids’ backyard trampoline has sufficient safety accessories — netting and padding, for instance — such precautions have not appeared to substantially reduce the risk of injury to kids, and may in fact offer a false sense of security, according to a new policy statement issued today by the American Academy of Pediatrics.

The academy is continuing its recommendations discouraging all home use of recreational trampolines, which it initially issued in 1999 and reaffirmed in 2006. The newest statement also reminds parents that most injuries — 75 percent — occur with multiple simultaneous users on the mat.

When multiple users share a trampoline, injuries are more frequent and more severe to younger kids who are smaller and lighter, according to the academy’s statement. Forty-eight percent of injuries to children 5 years old or younger resulted in fractures or dislocations. The ankle is most frequently injured.

Although injury rates have been decreasing since 2004, the potential for serious injury remains relatively high, the statement says. Many injuries occur even with reported adult supervision.

Increasing the risk for head and spine injury are somersaulting, flipping and falls from the trampoline.