Sippy Cups and Other Little-Known Childhood Hazards
家长注意：奶瓶带来的大危险

Two months ago, Jackie Sherrill of Grove City, Ohio, was sitting on her couch when her 20-month-old toddler, Morgan, who was sitting beside her, suddenly reached over. In an instant, Morgan, who had a bottle in her mouth, tumbled off the couch, crashing into an ottoman as she plunged to the floor.

两个月前，家住俄亥俄州格罗夫市的贾姬·谢里尔(Jackie Sherrill)坐在沙发上，她20个月大的宝宝莫根(Morgan)坐在一旁，猛地探过身来。当时莫根嘴里正含着一个奶瓶，就在一刹那，她猛地从沙发上跌落下来，撞上了旁边的一个搁脚凳。

As she wiped away her daughter's tears, Ms. Sherrill noticed that Morgan had a broken tooth and a cut mouth, damage from the hard plastic bottle she had been drinking from. Morgan didn't suffer any long-term harm, but it was then that Ms. Sherrill decided to begin transitioning her daughter from bottles to normal cups.

谢里尔擦着女儿的眼泪，她发现女儿撞断了一根牙，嘴唇也裂了个口子，这是被她正在喝水的硬质塑料奶瓶给刮破的。莫根受的伤并不会带来长期影响，不过正是经过了此事，谢里尔下决心不再让女儿喝奶瓶，改用普通杯子。

"I never would have thought that a child could get hurt from a bottle," said Ms. Sherrill. "It's something comforting to them. That's not one of the first things you think about when you're giving a kid a bottle."

谢里尔说：“我怎么都想不到，宝宝竟然会因为奶瓶受伤。奶瓶原本应该是慰藉孩子的东西。在你把奶瓶塞到宝宝手中时，断然不会想到它可能会造成伤害。”
 

奶瓶造成儿童受伤事故的数量惊人。

Most parents don't think of a child's bottle as a potential hazard. But two new studies in the journal Pediatrics highlight several under-recognized causes of injury in young children: bottles, pacifiers and sippy cups, which cause thousands of injuries to the mouth and teeth every year, often when toddlers topple over while holding them in their mouths, and button batteries, those flat silver discs used in toys, watches, remote control devices and other home electronics that can cause serious harm when swallowed.

大部分家长都认为，孩子用的奶瓶不可能造成潜在的伤害。但《儿科学期刊》(Pediatrics)近期刊登的两则研究报告指出，一些物品可能会对幼儿造成伤害，此前人们对此认识不足，这包括了奶瓶、安抚奶嘴和吸管杯，每年它们会导致几千起儿童嘴部和牙齿受伤案例，刚刚学步的幼儿用嘴含着上述物品时不小心摔倒，往往导致事故发生。此外还有纽扣电池，这类银色小圆片在玩具、手表、遥控器和其他家用电子用品中非常常见，一旦被孩子吞下，会造成严重问题。

The report on injuries involving bottles, pacifiers and sippy cups, the first nationwide look at such injuries, found that in the 20-year period from 1991 through 2010, more than 45,000 children under the age of 3 -- an average of about 2,270 children a year -- were treated in emergency rooms for injuries related to bottles, pacifiers and sippy cups.

研究奶瓶、安抚奶嘴和吸管杯造成的伤害，这在美国国内尚属首次，研究报道回溯了从1991年到2010年的病历，结果发现在这20年间，有超过4.5万名三岁以下的儿童受到上述物品的伤害，要送去急诊室紧急救治，平均来说每年有2700名儿童因此受伤。

"This is the equivalent of about one child every four hours," said Sarah A. Keim, a study author and a researcher at Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. She noted that the true number is likely to be much higher, since the study looked only at children who had been taken to emergency rooms. "We expect that less severe injuries were handled by the parents themselves, or that the child was taken to a pediatrician," she said.

“这就等于是说，每四小时就有一个孩子受伤，”本文研究作者、俄亥俄州哥伦布市美国儿童医院(Nationwide Children’s Hospital)研究员莎拉·A·凯姆(Sarah A. Keim)说。她还指出真实的数字可能高得多，因为这项研究只统计了那些被送去急诊的儿童。“我们估计，那些不太重的伤会由孩子家长自行处理，或者交由儿科医生来处置，”她说。

While almost all children use a pacifier or bottle at some point, health authorities have long encouraged parents to wean them off around the time they are learning to walk. The American Academy of Pediatrics, for example, recommends that children stop using pacifiers by about 6 months and transition from bottles to lidless cups by 12 months -- yet most parents ignore these guidelines. Studies show that nearly half of 1- and 2-year-olds continue to use bottles, and more than three quarters of children 1 to 2 drink from sippy cups.

差不多每个幼儿都会在成长的某个阶段使用安抚奶嘴或奶瓶，不过长期以来，卫生部门一直倡导家长在孩子开始学步时，就不再给他们使用这类用品。比方说，美国儿科学会(The American Academy of Pediatrics)推荐家长在孩子满6个月时，让他们戒掉安抚奶嘴，在12个月时从奶瓶过渡到没有盖子的杯子，不过大多数家长都忽视了这些指引。研究显示，有近半数一到两岁的幼儿仍在喝奶瓶，超过四分之三的一到两岁的幼儿在喝吸管杯。

In the new study, a majority of the injuries involved 1-year-olds. Bottles were the most common culprit, accounting for about 66 percent of cases, followed by pacifiers, at 20 percent, and sippy cups, at 14 percent. Injuries tended to occur at home and result in cuts to the mouth and face, usually when children were running or walking.

在这项新的研究中，大部分外伤都发生在一岁左右的幼儿身上。奶瓶是最大的罪魁祸首，占到了所有事故中的66%，排在第二位的是安抚奶嘴，占20%，而吸管杯所占比例为14%。事故往往发生在孩子在家中跑动或走路时，结果是嘴唇和脸部划伤。

"We think 1-year-old children are just learning to walk and run and are pretty unsteady on their feet and may be more likely to experience a fall," said Dr. Keim.

“我们觉得，一岁大的宝宝刚开始学走学跑，他们的脚步非常不稳，更有可能跌跤，”凯姆博士说。

She added that in her estimation, if the guidelines for stopping bottle and pacifier use had been followed, "about 80 percent of the children in the study would not have been using the product at the time they were injured."

她还补充说，据她推测，如果家长们都按指引来，不让孩子继续用奶瓶和安抚奶嘴，“在本研究中，有大约80%的孩子在受伤时，本来不应该在使用这些用品。”

Dr. Keim said that teaching children to use regular cups was important not because there is anything about the design of a normal cup that makes it safer, but that parents are simply more likely to make their children sit or stay in one spot while drinking from a lidless cup to prevent spills.

凯姆说，教孩子用普通杯子，并不是因为普通杯子从设计上更加安全，而是因为孩子在用这种杯子喝水时，家长们会要求孩子稳稳当当地坐着，或待在一个固定的地方，免得将水从杯子里溅出来。

"It's the combination of being seated while drinking that I think would reduce the risk of injury," she said.

“我觉得，喝水时安坐，这最能减少伤害的危险，”她说。

The second study, warning parents to be on the lookout for button batteries, a concern raised in earlier reports, noted that in the last two decades, about 66,000 children and teenagers were taken to emergency rooms in the United States for battery-related injuries. While none of the cases -- many involving children under 5 -- were fatal, lithium-cell batteries that are swallowed can set off a chemical reaction inside the body that can lead to severe tissue damage in just two hours.

第二项研究在此前曾报道过，提醒家长们要注意纽扣电池的危害，报告指出在最近20年里，在美国有6.6万名儿童和青少年因为电池造成的相关伤害被送去急诊室，其中很多发生在不足五岁的幼儿身上。尽管没有一起事件导致患者死亡，但吞食锂电池可能会导致体内发生化学反应，在两小时内就会造成严重的器官损害。

The researchers, also at Nationwide Children's Hospital, found that the number of cases had doubled during the study period. While parents need to be mindful about not leaving button batteries within reach of young children, they said, doctors, too, need to be aware of the growing problem so they can recognize it.

这个研究同样是由美国儿童医院完成，研究者发现，在研究期间，类似案例的发生数量翻了一番。他们提醒说，家长需要避免让幼儿接触纽扣电池，而医生们也需要了解这个益发严重的问题，好及时鉴别发现。

"Because button batteries may be mistaken for a coin, electrocardiogram electrode or other external object on a chest radiograph," the authors wrote, "disc-shaped objects should be carefully examined for features such as diameter and a double rim to prevent delays in diagnosis."