Two kids had to undergo surgery because of eye injuries caused by collapsible laundry hampers.
These hampers should be kept away from kids due to its embedded stiff wire spring. As soon as these wires get exposed, it can be risky when in contact with kids.
Dr. Iris Kassem, author of the report and assistant professor of Clinical Ophthalmology Pediatric Ophthalmology from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her team described the cases of these kids who injured one of their eyes with the wire of the collapsible hamper. One was an 11-year old boy while the other was a girl less than 1-year old.
Both had cuts on their eyeballs which needed surgery. The boy is now wearing contact lens while the girl had developed a lazy eye, a visual disorder where one eye is not functioning. Both have recovered from the injuries.
Dr. Michael Repka, pediatric ophthalmology researcher at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore, is not familiar with the injury but had an idea how it can happen. The kids may have been curious about the designs of these collapsible hampers and accidentally poked one of their eyes. However, he clarified that hampers are not the only possible threat as anything with wires can pose dangers.
Repka is not part of the study and is questioning the conclusion made by the researchers.
"It's not isolated to wire hampers," he mentioned to Reuters Health. "Wires from lots of products can hit kids in the eye."
Meanwhile, Kassem recommends that manufacturers of collapsible hampers should start including warning labels and changing the designs to be more kid-friendly. He also advised the parents to make sure that the kids were not playing near these objects and immediately dispose if it the wires are already exposed.
The case study was published on the July 1 issue of online journal Pediatrics.
