Toddler injuries linked to baby bottles, pacifiers, sippy cups - WCAX.COM Local Vermont News, Weather and Sports-

Toddler injuries linked to baby bottles, pacifiers, sippy cups

Practically all young children in the United States use bottles, sippy cups or pacifiers, but they may not be as safe as parents think.

Twenty-two month-old Morgan Sherrill has a chipped tooth.

"She reached for me and fell forward and hit her face on the ottoman in front of the couch and her bottle happened to be in her mouth at the time," said her mother, Jackie Sherrill.

A new study in the journal Pediatrics finds over a nearly two decade period, more than 45-thousand children under age three went to the hospital for injuries related to the use of baby bottles, pacifiers and sippy cups. That's approximately one child every four hours.

"The vast majority of the injuries in this study were falls that children experienced and 70 percent of the injuries were injuries around the mouth or to the mouth itself," said Dr. Sarah Keim with Nationwide Children's Hospital.

The study also found that two thirds of the injuries were to children who were one year old -- children who are just learning to walk and may be tripping with these products in their hands and mouths.

About two-thirds of the injuries involved baby bottles. The remaining injuries were divided evenly between sippy cups and pacifiers.

Morgan's mom no longer lets her daughter walk around while drinking. She also switched to bottles with a rubber top instead of a hard plastic one.

"I don't think she may have chipped her tooth if she had that softer top on her bottle," Jackie Sherrill said.

She knows it could have been worse. Morgan didn't need stitches and the baby tooth will fall out on its own.  

Bigad Shaban -- CBS News