Heavy toilet seats can be a danger to little boys
Wooden toilet seats' popularity may lead to rise in 'crush' injuries, doc says
updated 4:40 p.m. ET, Fri., Dec. 26, 2008
Parents of newly toilet-trained boys should take a few simple steps to keep their sons' penises safe when they go to the bathroom, a team of UK urologists advises.There's evidence that crush injuries due to falling toilet seats may be on the rise, Dr. Joe Philip of Leighton Hospital in Crewe in England and colleagues warn in a letter in BJU (British Journal of Urology) International.While he and his colleagues typically see just one or two such cases a year, if any, Philip told Reuters Health, they treated four different 2- to 4-year-old boys with penile crush injuries in the past several months.
"Thankfully all of the four had only the foreskin swelling, but obviously there's a lot of anxiety for the parents and the kids," Philip said. All of the boys were kept in the hospital overnight until they were able to urinate, but none of them suffered lasting physical damage, he added.
In each case, the youngster was trying to urinate on his own and had lifted the toilet seat, only to have it fall back down. An industry report states that wooden toilet seats are becoming more popular as a possible explanation for the increase in injuries.
Philip and his colleagues offer the following tips to help families of young boys prevent these injuries from happening:
Install "soft fall" toilet seats in every bathroom in the home, and ban heavy toilet seats made of wood or ceramic from homes with young boys.
Leave the toilet seat up at all times, until all of the boys in the household can hold the seat up on their own.Supervise children every time they visit the bathroom.
Okay, I don't have a penis so I can't possibly understand. So, I asked my husband and he laughed and said, "No, I was not an idiot child",. To begin with, if a boy is getting his penis "crushed" by a toilet seat or lid, then wouldn't he have to actually just be laying it on the rim of the bowl? If so, then he is TOO small to be using an adult sized toilet without supervision and these parents need to back off and give the boy a kiddie potty. He can be "potty trained" and still use a kiddie potty chair can't he? I agree with the docs' advice that a "soft fall" seat would be good and I certainly think that the kyds anywhere near potty training age need toilet supervision. HOWEVER, it is a STUPID idea to allow a boy to be potty trained and not also teach him to put the damned seat lid down, like this "tip" from the doctors advise. Not having a penis, I hate to say this, but isn't it a bit stupid for a boy to lay his dick on a toilet rim? Most of these boys don't get potty trained until they are 3-4 and older, wouldn't they be tall enough and smart enough to keep their OWN dicks out of harm's way? I thought that this was something that men just always "knew". I suppose that all of this molly coddling of little boys by their moomies with the breastfeeding until they are school age, co-sleeping, not letting them ever cry or want for anything, has turned them into little sissified dummies, or something.
God help society when these boys who can't protect their own dicks, become men.