Adaptive seating for young children: Parents' perceptions of injury risk in the bathtub

Abstract

Objective:

Bathtub drowning is a leading cause of unintentional injury death for infants in the United States. Most drownings occurred during a lapse in adult supervision. We studied whether parents of children with postural control needs and parents of infants who can sit unsupported report the same levels of child supervision during bath time activities.

Method:

Sixteen parents of preschoolers with physical disabilities participated in one of two focus groups.

Results:

Although parents reported that they would never leave their children alone in the bathtub, a few acknowledged that they would leave their children unsupervised for brief moments if they believed that their children were safe, secure and well supported. Further, many participants felt that supervision of their young children could be assigned to older, responsible siblings.

Conclusion:

The self-reported behaviours of parents in our study are similar to those reported by other parents. This finding suggests that the injury risk in bathtubs is potentially higher for children who use devices for postural support. Further research is needed to study whether this heightened risk is reasonable considering the benefits of specialty bath seats for young children with physical disabilities.