Treadmill warning!

[tammy bell]

Hi, everyone, I know that this probably is not the forum for this but because so many people on these boards have young chilrdren, I wanted to share with you what happened to my 4 year old DS last night. We have read all the warnings about the dangers with young children and treadmills so we were very "careful". After each use, we took out the safety key and put it on top of our wall unit (never imagining that our son was watching this). While doing dishes, we heard this awful screaming. We ran in and found my son trapped between the wall and the treadmill with the treadmill running at full speed. He had taken a chair and was able to climb up and reach the key. The abrasions on his little body are terrible. He requires dressing changes on his hip, his arm, and his knees three times a day. The rest of his body (including is face) are not as bad and can be covered with regular band aides. He can hardly walk because his hip hurts so bad (thankfully not broken). The E.R. doctor says we were "lucky",he said that usually treadmill injuries with children are much worse, many requiring surgery. Please be careful, we were and this still happened.

 

[dis4me]

OHMIGOD How terrible I hope your son is doing OK. Thank you for the warning.I wll kep him in my prayers.

 

[nswift]

I am so sorry to hear what happened to your son! Thanks for the warning, as a matter of fact I have just bought a treadmill. My children are older, but I have nieces and nephews.
He is in our prayers
NSwift

 

[deedee67]

I am so sorry that your little boy got hurt. Thank you for taking the time to post the warning to others. Hope he is feeling better real soon.

 

[Doctor P]

I'm very surprised by this. Our treadmill, which is not top of the line, would be nearly impossible for a four year old to start since it is a more than three step process. On ours you have to turn the power on (ours must be manually turned off after every use to save the motor), then put the key in, and then actually engage the tread at a speed to get it started. Apparently the OP's is much easier to circumvent or they did not have all the safety measures/recommended use factors in place. In any case, it is really too bad what happened to the child and is a good wake-up call to be careful with any kind of equipment like this (even adults can be injured if not vigilant about things).

 

[gassmandy]

That is AWFUL!! But mine is like Doctor P's.........turn the power switch on, insert the key, set a speed and then press start. Not that a kid probably couldn't eventually figure all this out!! Thank God my daughter is 11 months old and I only use it during her naps!! Hopefully I'll be in shape soon enough to give it back to my parents (I'm borrowing it while they remodel their master bath--which is where they had it!) and won't feel all jiggly running outside!! LOL
But in all seriousness--that is so sad and I am very sorry for you guys.........

 

[moinab]

Do not underestimate the resourcefulness of a child! When DS was 2.5, he was able to turn on the oven (by pressing 3 different buttons in the proper sequence) undo the safety latch, open the door, and burn his fingers on the heating element, all in the span of approximately 30 seconds, while I was in the bathroom. Thank God, it was only a minor second degree burn, but I never thought he'd be capable of that.

 

[DisneyForLife]

How horrible, thankfully he is going to be okay.
My treadmill is in a spot where the exact same thing could happen, close to the wall. Thank you for reminding us all how dangerous it can be.

 

[tammy bell]

Thank You everyone for keeping him in your prayers. Our treadmill is a 3 step process, insert key, turn power on, and then select speed. He was still able to do this. Like Moinab said, "never underestimate the resourcefulness of a child". Thanks again everyone.

 

[Lorix2]

Oh that is terrible!! Thank goodness you got to him right away. I hope he will recover from his boo boo's quickly....tough lesson to learn, poor little guy. I'm so glad to hear it's nothing too serious.

 

[dvcfamily41801]

I am glad your little boy is okay. I hope he feels better quick.