Seeking Advice About Safe Trampolines

hi cathy

i bought this one for my girls for christmas:

http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Riffic-Jump-Start/dp/B000ETRFRS...

they love it and so do kids who come to visit. i prefered the design as it's harder to tip over than this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Kid-Riffic-Jump-Start/dp/B000ETRFRS...

if your kid gets really into jumping, this one looks like it'll tip over. i've seen a kid going at it and the back two legs coming off the floor a little.

the only downside to the first one is that there is an 80 pound limit. sometimes i want to get on there too :) oh and it has music. if that's going to bother you, just don't put in the batteries. and you'll need 2 people put it together.

As a former gymnast of 17 years, I have one more safety concern to bring up with regard to any trampoline, and in my opinion, it is the most dangerous. Please, please, please, get some instruction on how to actually jump on the trampoline. Flips and other such tricks are really fun and exciting, but broken necks and backs are not. And they happen on backyard trampolines more easily than they should. A community gymnastics class will help with some body awareness, a club will help even more (but more expensive). It sounds like a lot, I've seen some terrible injuries resulting from just not knowing how or where to let a body make contact with the trampoline bed. Good luck!

We have had three different trampolines so far. We LOVE having a trampoline. Initially, when they were very young, we had a small personal sized one. They loved that!
The straps rotted off the spring free one and broke while my kids were on it. We have had only very minor difficulties on either one. The spring one which we own now has a cover that attaches in several places and no spring related injuries have occured at all.
Once at my mother in laws house, my son got piched by a spring, but it only left a little mark and they stayed away from the springs after that. We use a little ladder to get on/off and perhaps that helps avoid spring contact.
I do NOT recommend the netting around. It became a climbing item and kids were hanging from it and it ripped easily.
So far, establishing safety rules, jumping techniques, and monitoring my kids has worked. IT's a great exercise for my kids who will be on it for hours at a time.
We got ours at Toys R Us with a great warranty, for a reasonable price after shopping online and around town for a deal.

We have one of the Little Tikes inflatables. http://www.littletikes.com/toys/obstacle-course-bouncer.a...

This will be our 3rd year (bought 5/06). Our oldest was almost 3yrs old when we got it. We weren't exactly looking for trampoline, but more play structure. Our yard is such that we really didn't want a playground in our front yard, so this works out great. We can put it up weather permitting, and take down when done. It only takes 10min tops to put up and take down.

HTH
E.

I have not seen the SpringFree trampoline and therefore don't know about safety issues with it. What makes it different than the regular trampoline. sounds like the difference is a lack of springs.

Springs are not the only safety issue. Another one is falling off which is addressed with a net attached to and surrounding the trampoline. The safety or lack thereof that I've had experience with is landing wrong when the child jumps. My daughter, when she was 12 or so landed on the side of her foot instead of the bottom. She severely sprained her ankle and is still sometimes has pain 14 years later. It took over a year for it to heal.

We continued to use the trampoline but paid more attention to the actual jumping. The trampoline is safest when only one child at a time jumps. This is difficult to enforce. My daughter was injured when there were 2 kids jumping.

I think that 3 is too young for a full sized trampoline. She is probably too light weigth to be able to make the trampoline move much. I think that she would mostly fall down because the bed is slippery and doesn't give.

My grandchildren, ages 4 and 7, use a personal trampoline that people use for exercise. It's about 40"+ in diameter and sits about 6 inches off the floor. They have it in their playroom. When it's not in use they lean it against the wall.

we used to have a trampoline - the key to safety is buying a safety net that goes around the trampoline and also purchasing one that has a gaurd over the springs. I am sure the one you are referring to, covers the springs, but you may also want to consider the net. That prevents falling off the trampoline. They are tons of fun!