http://www.cbc.ca/health/story/2008/11/26/bead-skull.html?ref=rss

Came across this online and figured I should share--not sure how a beaded hair toy can cause a skull fracture, but I'm thinking you'd have to be moving pretty fast....but, I think it's good to be informed.

Good grief. Maybe kids that young shouldn't sleep in bunk beds.

Good grief. Maybe kids that young shouldn't sleep in bunk beds.

Exactly. I think the fall is more of an issue than whatever foreign body might possibly end up in the poor child's skull.

Yeah... I didn't get that beaded hairtoys were intrinsically dangerous. I got "please tell your doctor if your injured kid with head trauma was wearing a beaded hairtoy".

In other words, it's just a reminder to tell your doc all the details of the accident. But the wording of the article could have been better -- especially the headline. :rolleyes:

Well, better ban all beads now! And just go read the hair stick/weapon thread! We're a bunch of terrorists!!! Good grief!

The hairtoy mentioned here is what some call a booble, like this: http://www.sta-riteginnielou.com/product_images/0000/0681/4080.jpg the beads tend to be more like marbles than beads, which really could do a kid's skull damage, assuming that they fell far enough to cause injury in the first place. I thought this might clear up some confusion about the nature of the beads in question.

Yes, that is the kind of hair toy I imagined. I remember those from my childhood. They made it much easier to make a ponytail with my curly hair. You don't have to pull the hair through the loop like you do with an elastic. Just wrap it around, and tuck the bead into the loop.

The article implies that it's the hair bobble that's the problem, when it's really just the kid falling, and had there been something on the floor, a marble or something, it would have been equally dangerous. Suddenly the headlines say "Marbles can cause head trauma".

It makes sense for smaller children as there skulls aren't fully formed and are so tiny.When I kid falls and bumps there head it is an equal area but when you have something small thats impacts it much more.

For some reason this made me think of an add on to this line:

"Marbles can cause head trauma" ( when you put 50 of them in a sock and hit someone one in the head with them )


The article implies that it's the hair bobble that's the problem, when it's really just the kid falling, and had there been something on the floor, a marble or something, it would have been equally dangerous. Suddenly the headlines say "Marbles can cause head trauma".

Now, babies have an open spot in the top of their skull, but children have fully formed skulls. The warning against these hair accessories is ridiculous. When you think of all the truly horrible things that can befall children these days, instead of putting time, effort and money into pushing an "anti-Bobble" campaign would be a total waste.

Let's put that money, the publicity, the information into curing childhood cancers, the auto-immune diseases, all the evils to which children can fall victim - none of which have to do with hair toys!

The article implies that it's the hair bobble that's the problem, when it's really just the kid falling, and had there been something on the floor, a marble or something, it would have been equally dangerous. Suddenly the headlines say "Marbles can cause head trauma".

I didn't really think the article was alarmist. I agree that the fall is the main issue, but the secondary issue was that there was a foreign body that caused an extra injury. That foreign body could have easily been anything else, this time it was a hair bobble, something that many parents don't even think about. People tend to think of kids hitting their heads on furniture, the floor and toys, but it's easy to ponytail your child's hair everyday and never think about the bobble you're using being something else to mention to a doctor if a fall lands your kid in the ER.

My kid is 15 months old, and his soft spot is just about all gone. I can just feel a tiny ridge at one spot that used to be the edge of it.

I'm going to take this article as a warning that whenever a kid gets an injury you should check for anything missing that might still be in the wound.