Toilet Seat Injuries to Little Boys Appear to Be on the Rise

[sweetbay]

Reposted after request.

"Parents of newly toilet-trained boys should take a few simple steps to keep their sons' penises safe when they go to the bathroom, a team of UK urologists advises.

There's evidence that crush injuries due to falling toilet seats may be on the rise, Dr. Joe Philip of Leighton Hospital in Crewe and colleagues warn in a letter in BJU (British Journal of Urology) International.

While he and his colleagues typically see just one or two such cases a year, if any, Philip told Reuters Health, they treated four different two- to four-year-old boys with penile crush injuries in the past several months.

"Thankfully all of the four had only the foreskin swelling, but obviously there's a lot of anxiety for the parents and the kids," Philip said. All of the boys were kept in the hospital overnight until they were able to urinate, but none of them suffered lasting physical damage, he added.

In each case, the youngster was trying to urinate on his own and had lifted the toilet seat, only to have it fall back down. An industry report states that wooden toilet seats are becoming more popular as a possible explanation for the increase in injuries.

Philip and his colleagues offer the following tips to help families of young boys prevent these injuries from happening:

Install "soft fall" toilet seats in every bathroom in the home, and ban heavy toilet seats made of wood or ceramic from homes with young boys.

Leave the toilet seat up at all times, until all of the boys in the household can hold the seat up on their own.

Supervise children every time they visit the bathroom.

Constant supervision can be difficult, Philip conceded, especially during holiday gatherings when a youngster may steal off on his own to demonstrate his newly-found skill. "Children want to show that they are independent," he said."

To understand the problem take a look at pix below. Just replace the girl with boy and you can see the height of wee wee at the same level as toilet seat. I suppose that's how a boy can injure his wee wee... ouch... I guess the boy leans too close to toilet to pee.

[Image]

Obviously does not happen to little girls, one advantage being a girl LOL

But still, leaving the toilet seat up, could cause back injuries on little girls or the girls would just close it themselves so maybe it would hit on their faces? or their hands.

Toilet seats should only be sold with a warning label attached, they are very risky, especially the heavy wooden ones.

[ptguardian]

They can be dangerous
[Image]

[mimzy]

OMG

Thanks sweetbay for repost! Looks like toilet seat injuries to little boys have been well analyzed, but toilet seat injuries to little girls (and cats???) definitely need some further research