Many insurers will decline to insure your home if you have a trampoline. Some will only do so if the trampoline is excluded, leaving you vulnerable to lawsuits. But even if your insurance company agrees to cover your trampoline, it’s in your child’s best interest to keep both feet planted on the ground.

As the weather warms up and the kids put down the controllers and venture outside, you may be confronted with the trampoline question. Resist.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), an organization composed of 60,000 pediatricians nationwide, thinks trampolines are a bad idea, and further, they believe that no amount of parental supervision is enough to eliminate the potential for serious injury. As much as they’d like to encourage physical activity in today’s increasingly sedentary youth, they believe the risks associated with trampolines to be too great.

And they’ve got a point. According to a 2007 study by Rhode Island Hospital, between 2000-2005 there were 531,378 trampoline-related injuries, amounting to 88,563 per year. And 95 percent of those injuries occurred on a home trampoline.

And these mishaps run the gamut from minor cuts and bruises to spinal cord damage resulting in paralysis to death. The following are common injuries according to the AAP:

• Broken bones (sometimes needing surgery)
• Concussions and other head injuries
• Sprains/strains
• Bruises, scrapes, and cuts
• Neck and spinal cord injuries

If that isn’t enough to persuade you, there’s the liability issue. If someone else’s child is injured on your trampoline, you could be on the hook for any medical bills. Worse still, if your neighbor’s child climbs your fence while you’re away and gets hurt, you may be liable then, too, even though the child was trespassing at the time.

Trampolines are known as “attractive nuisances”: locations, objects and/or conditions that are both dangerous and attractive to young children. (Examples include swimming pools, farm equipment, abandoned cars, horse stables.) Legally, the burden is on owners of these attractive nuisances to take adequate measures to protect children–even trespassing children–from harm, e.g., erecting fences and installing locks.

Acknowledging that trampolines pose a health risk to your kids and legal and financial risks to you, the question to ask yourself is, Are they worth it?  

A year ago, a person submitted the following question to Yahoo Answers: “Anyone bought a trampoline, put it up and then have an insurance company demand you take it down or drop you?”

Here are excerpts from the winning answer:

“Get rid of the trampoline,” the answerer advised. “Do you really want to jeopardize your financial future on a toy? Take this how ever you want…..I’m an insurance adjuster. And after every thing I have seen on trampoline claims…I would NEVER have one.”

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One Comment »

• Oliver Jones says:

  May 13, 2010 at 10:40 am

  my kids just love to jump around on trampolines and they are sort of addicted to it.:,`