do you own one? do you think they're safe? dh and i are heading towards a major feud :) teddy really wants one for his bday, and dh says no. i grew up with one and loved it. and the one at sam's here has big time safety nets all around it.

sweet little ted emailed his evil uncle (my bil) to ask for one, and told him not to tell bob, but of course the little snitch did, lol. ::sending the evil bil ugly don't disappoint my baby glances:: dh is usually so level headed. am i missing something here?

Wellll...I grew up with one in school, and our neighbors have one -- no net for the first year, then they got the net. :confused: Whatever.

I've thought about it a lot because the jumping is supposed to be great for loosening secretions in CF, and Jake loves to jump. We have a mini aerobic style one that's out in the yard that they jump on one at a time. They love it.

Honestly, I think the injuries are mostly from kids who are unsupervised while jumping. I think there are safe ways to use a trampoline. I am probably eventually going to get one, but once Jacob's a few years older.

Just my off the cuff opinion. I know lots of people who are *very* against them. But, so far the neighbor kids (11 and 9) are fine. LOL. They have lots of fun on it, I will tell you that!

It is also supposed to be good for the lymphatic system and therefore, the immune system. Supposedly gets the lymph moving and draining better.

i'm sure this won't be the popular opinion...but we have one. it's that one from sam's club, & it's got the netting all around it...probably the same one you saw. we got it for the girls for chanukah, & as a present from talia when she was born, kwim?

they are occasionally out there unsupervised, b/c it's in a locked fenced yard, but most of the time one of us or our sitter is out there w/them. they don't even jump very high...they're 32 & 34 lbs & don't get very high.

they love it...& dh loves to get in there w/them. he lies down & looks up at the trees & they jump/run around him. & it's SO cute to watch them play ring-around-the-rosey & fall down (not dh, lol!).

as they get older they'll probably want to have more friends over...that's when i envision it getting tougher. & that's when they will *always* have supervision.

no flames, thank you!!

We love ours, too! :) Ours has a net as well. The injuries I hear of are falling off (net prevents this) or bigger kids knocking into each other (jump alone if big enough to really bounce like that!)

We have one too!! It is the tramp with the net around it. Our kids love it (me too!! boy do they sleep good after playing out for the afternoon!!) LOL!! Anyway.. My 5 year old is allowed out by herself to jump but she usually just lays and looks around plays quietly on there.. Usually no jumping. My other kids have to have mommy out there with them.
I love watching them out there playing .. It is something they actually enjoy doing together. They (older dds) know when josh 2 is on with them they bounce easy and play with him.

Just my 2 cents :)

My kids are way too young for one so I don't feel like I can really tell you what I would do, esp if one of them was begging for one. ;) My first instinct is to say NO!!! The most common injuries (that I have heard of) are ones that occur on the tramp, esp when there are more than one child on there. You know how you can jump in sync and make each other go higher and higher? Well if on one jump the kids are out of sync, one child will land very hard on the tramp and can really hurt himself (think broken ankle). Of course falling off is a hazard as well, but I think falling off is pretty rare. So if you feel like your kids won't mess around and have multiple kids on there, then I think it may be ok.

Oh gosh I remember playing w/ my cousins on theirs and we would jump out of a tree onto their tramp. :eek: They were a bad influence, lol. ;) Sure was fun though.

Well, I have to say it, but I think they are horrible. A 17 year old boy, the son of my husbands Command Master Chief is laying in a hospital bed right now b/c he fell off of his last week and is paralyzed from the neck down. He has already undergone several surgeries, they didn't even think he was going to live, now they don't think he'll walk again either. So, no, I hate them! I think they are unsafe. I've always felt that way, even when I was a kid, I wouldn't jump on them if my friends had them. I don't even think the ones with the cages around them are safe either b/c you can still land wrong and break a bone or something, ya know?? I do think with the cage around it is a tad bit safer, b/c it does prevent you from falling off and hitting the ground, but I still think in general they are bad things to have.

Originally posted by connorsmom
I don't even think the ones with the cages around them are safe either b/c you can still land wrong and break a bone or something, ya know??

That's always been my concern, that the kids would attempt to do a flip and land wrong, break a bone, or break their neck. Really worries me.

We will never own one and my kids are not allowed to jump on them (the neighbors have one). This is one of the things that my ped takes a hard line on too. He and I were talking about it at a picnic once (he is a friend of my brother) and he told me about all of the injuries he has seen. He practices in a small town and has seen 2 spinal cord injuries in the past few years. He also has a colleague who recently treated an adult with a spinal cord injury (he was teaching his children how to jump safely when he was injured). This is my biggest concern, although there are scads of other more minor injuries that can happen.

I realize that injuries can happen in other activities too, but I think trampolines are just inherently more dangerous that many of the traditional kid type activities. Search the net for the statistics and the injury reports. My kids were disappointed when the neighbors got the trampoline and I wouldn't let them jump. Then they saw one of the daughters come to a neighborhood gathering sporting a fancy new cast on her recently broken arm and they stopped asking to jump.

Just my 2 cents here.....

Try to get more info (yahoo search maybe for dangers of trampolines).

They are fun and can be a good part of a life.....but one moment of disaster isn't worth the fun as far as I'm concerned.....

I have a problem with my 13 yr old going to the neighbor friends house (he is 13 too) and apparently there is a huge trampoline there and frankly......I am bugged that my son is tempted to go on it when he knows I don't want him to go on one. So you have to consider other people's kids jumping on it and liability and responsibility for any injuries.

As tempting as they are, they scare me. I knew a gymnast who taught gymnastics at my summer camp. We ALWAYS bounced with "guards" (people) around the tramp to help nudge people back in if they got too close to the edge. She fell and broke her neck. Can't remember if she hit the ground or the wood railing around the tramp (this was over 20 years ago). She was paralyzed from the neck down. Her poor twin sister who was also a gymnast witnessed the whole thing. And remember, this was a woman who was trained to work on the tramp and teach children how to be safe on it.

We have had a trampoline for 20+ years, Not the same one, we are on #3 or #4. I love them and think they are a great outdoor activity, but don't watch the older kids jump, as it makes me very nervous. My 19 yr old does all kinds of flips etc, so does my 13 yr old son. My younger kids are suppervised, and basically just jump and play their made up games. The only accident that we have ever had was a 22yr old friend of my SIL who jumped off the trampoline (to get off) and he landed wrong and twisted his ankle. They Can be dangerous, but so can bikes if used the wrong way, without helmets, without supervision, without rules! So can roller blades, skateboards, heck there are kids every year at the elementary school, that break bones while playing on a supervised playground. I think the whole thing, is to have rules and guidelines! It's great for looking at the stars at night, reading on, having the whole family out laying on it, on a summer night! I do have a few friends that have dug out a huge hole, and put the trampoline inside so it's flush with the ground, because they didn't want falling off to be an issue. Good luck with your decision :)

We have one. :-D And we love it. We have some rules about it's use. Little kids can go 2 at a time, but big kids, only one at a time. And no 'jumping' each other on it. We have a safety net around it, too. Usually the kids are good about the rules, but once in a while I have to pop my head out the back door and holler, "TWO AT A TIME OR NO ONE PLAYS!" Austin does flips, Adam tries.

I LOVE having it. When I feel frustrated I go kick the kids off and do flips. It makes for a good workout.

If you own a home I would check with your homeowners insurance.

Kathy

Originally posted by Kathy
If you own a home I would check with your homeowners insurance.

Kathy

Good point. In reading through info on the net, it appears that most companies won't insure you if you own a trampoline.

Lisa

As much as I love trampolines, my dh fell on one when he was 14 and fractured a vertebrae. He was luck in that he didn't get paralized. But he did spend a year in a brace and has had a lifetime of back problems ever since.

I think they are safer now than they were then. But think very, very hard about whether you are willing to accept the worst possible scenario before you get one.

Here is an idea!: I went to a yard sale recently and saw a REALLY different kind of trampoline in these people's yard!

They had dug a hole, I am not sure if it was lined w/cement or not.
Then they had the trampoline part, the part you jump on-no legs, stretched over the hole and almost flat with the ground. It was so cool!
I think it was attached with some kind of hook attachments.

I also did gymnastics at a gym as a kid (not on the commune LOL in the city, we moved around a lot), I was pretty good and was invited to study under a very well known coach but my mom thought I wasn't serious enough about it to spring the $.
She was right, I am not Olympic material, not disciplined enoughl LOL.
We rotated on all the equipment, my best was floor (I can actually still do a lot of stuff), beam, parallel bars but we used the trampoline too. I LOVED it!

I am thinking about getting a small exercise trampoline for dd to help her motor skills and strengthen her messed up leg. Any thoughts on those? I saw one w/ a bar but I can see dds falling and knocking their teeth out on it.

dd was one of those kids who get injured on the playground (supervised) at school :(
Last year she fell from the very top of a corkscrew (she was sitting on the bar at the top and fell from there and this corkscrew is taller than most! YIKES) and couldn't walk for a while. She sprained her hip and i brought her to an orthopedist recently for followup because she was still having problems but nothing showed up fractured on xray.
The dr agreed that she walks/runs funny and muscles are too tight so I need to find something to help loosen her muscles back up. :(

We have one with a net, and we love it. The little ones go on by themselves, and the older boys two at a time. No flipping or somersaulting is allowed. We are either sitting out on the porch watching them or in the kitchen, which has the window facing the backyard.
They are dangerous. But so are bikes, playground equipment, skateboards..life in general...LOL
Good luck!
Bethany

i agree w/posters who said accidents can happen all the time. we have had 2 trampolines (one got blown away in a storm) and love them. and, we don't even have a safety net :eek: . actually, when we first got ours we didn't even know you could buy a safety net. anyway, nary an accident and we have had many, many children out for birthdays, family events, etc. the trampoline gets a LOT of use.

that said, we are thinking of getting a safety net for ours.

I'm not really for or against them. I do have a suggestion, however. Tell your kids to keep their knees bent when they jump. A friend of mine locked her knees while jumping and totally crushed the majority of bones in one of her legs. I was there to see it and it was the most horrible thing I have ever witnessed. So, please tell the kids to always keep their knees bent! :thumbsup:

no. I am 100% against getting a trampoline. dh wants one but i vetoed it fast. I don't believe kids learn to jump the right ways like you learn to on a real trampoline in gymnastics. they don't know how to properly land if they DO come down wrong. Tramps are supposed to be ONE person at a time, all the time. Anyone hitting another person can hurt them. There is a post about this at mycoupons.com at the family board right now. They can be playing nice on them but still land wrong. You have no control over how you really land at all and two small children can easily get hurt by one kid just falling a little off and landing on the other ones leg. I definitely wouldn't allow older kids in there more than one. I dunno. I know plenty who own them and they love them, but to me it is not worth the risk. There are so many injuries every year from trampolines. And everyone argues that people get hurt other ways too like in pools and on bikes... but look at the numbers compared to how many people own bikes and pools compared to tramps. And I would be too afraid to have one for fear of liability. If someone else got hurt in my yard, I certainly wouldn't want to be responsible for it!

Closest thing my kid will get to a trampoline is their mattress! lol Or if they go to a gym where there are spotters and they are taught how to jump.

wow! what a great bunch of insightful posts. i had no idea trampolines stirred up such strong feelings. i'll have to forward this link to dh (so be forewarned if we have a brand new poster, lol). i tend to think it's like anything else--gotta have safety rules like 1 at a time & no flips. & i'm definitely looking at the one with the safety net! thanks everyone :)

Definately check with your homeowners/renters insurance. I know my insurance company won't cover you if you have a trampoline.

Nikki

We actually bought it for me to play on, long before we had kids lol. Anyway, the kids have been playing on it since they could walk and *love* it. They are 4 and 2 now. Great exercise. Teach them to play safely.

Cheers, Carolyn

We had one for 5 years. My dh was never really for it, but I wasn't against it, so we just kept it (no safety net). One day my then 7 yr old had an accident. He jumped too close to the springs, and his leg got caught in the spring but his body bounced off the trampoline. Dh ran out there so fast and got him off --and we got rid of the trampoline.
I think they can be ok if you have some rules. We saw a show on them and it was scary to see the injuries they can cause --especially this 17 yr old parapleigic (sp?). It was so sad! :(
I know life is dangerous, but there are things that are more risky than others, and it's your choice if you want to take that risk!
Another thing that I was concerned about is the homeowners insurance, and also if another kid got hurt on your trampoline, they can sue you. That's scary too!
I do miss having the trampoline though, I used to jump on it too. But I wouldn't want to fight over it with dh, because if anything ever DID happen, he'd blame me forever, I'm sure!

My friend is a physiatrist (a doctor specializing in physical medicine and rehabilitation) and she is vehemently against the use of trampolines. She has worked with many patients who have severe injuries due to trampoline accidents. We don't often talk about medical issues, but she has passionately cautioned us against getting a trampoline.