Promoting Well Being

Trampolining can be good exercise and great fun but every year hundreds of children and young people in Northern Ireland get injured while using their trampoline.

During a four-week period in 2008, 82 people were injured in the SHSCT area alone because of trampoline-related accidents. Fifty-seven of those injured were children under 10 years of age. Twenty children aged under 6 years of age were also among those injured, despite the fact that large trampolines are not recommended for children under 6 (guidance from the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents).

The advice in this leaflet is based on the survey of patients who attended an Accident and Emergency Department or Minor Injury Unit in the SHSCT, as a result of a trampoline accident.

Parents need to be aware of:

• The behaviours that lead to accidents
• The need to carry out safety checks to the trampoline itself (including checking the condition of the mat, safety pads and net, position of the trampoline and the surrounding area or fall out zone)
• The need to supervise children to ensure that only one person uses the trampoline at a time and that children use it safely (ie they do not attempt risky jumps, stunts or somersaults, including jumps on or off the trampoline).
• The fact that safety enclosures or nets will prevent accidental falls from the trampoline but other accidents can still occur.

To view the leaflet click Here. Copies can be requested by calling the Promoting Wellbeing Team on Tel: 028 3834 4973.