Skip to main content

Main menu

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums

User menu

  • My alerts

Search

  • Advanced search
The College of Family Physicians of Canada
  • Other Publications
    • http://www.cfpc.ca/Canadianfamilyphysician/
    • https://www.cfpc.ca/Login/
    • Careers and Locums
  • My alerts
The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Advanced Search

  • Home
  • Articles
    • Current
    • Published Ahead of Print
    • Archive
    • Supplemental Issues
    • Collections - French
    • Collections - English
  • Info for
    • Authors & Reviewers
    • Submit a Manuscript
    • Advertisers
    • Careers & Locums
    • Subscribers
    • Permissions
  • About CFP
    • About CFP
    • About the CFPC
    • Editorial Advisory Board
    • Terms of Use
    • Contact Us
  • Feedback
    • Feedback
    • Rapid Responses
    • Most Read
    • Most Cited
    • Email Alerts
  • Blogs
    • Latest Blogs
    • Blog Guidelines
    • Directives pour les blogues
  • Mainpro+ Credits
    • About Mainpro+
    • Member Login
    • Instructions
  • RSS feeds
  • Follow cfp Template on Twitter
LetterLetters

Value of monkey bars?

Mark H. Ebell
Canadian Family Physician May 2019, 65 (5) 314;
Mark H. Ebell
Athens, Ga
  • Find this author on Google Scholar
  • Find this author on PubMed
  • Search for this author on this site
  • Article
  • eLetters
  • Info & Metrics
  • PDF
Loading

As an 8-year-old I fell from monkey bars that were 8 feet tall (I was half that height), with my elbow striking a rock conveniently placed beneath them. I had a complex fracture that led to external fixation and a lifelong gunstock deformity but no other sequelae. I spent 3 weeks in traction, during which time I read the Golden Book Encyclopedia from A to Z, much to my doctor’s amazement. I am now an academic family physician, and a dual Canadian-American national, and can twist my left arm in ways that both amaze and disgust my younger relatives.

Of course, play cannot and should not be without risk. But reasonable bounds should be put in place to mitigate the risk of serious injury (ie, assuring age-appropriate heights for falls, removing rocks, and eliminating equipment that could lead to rare but catastrophic spinal injuries). The authors of the rapid systematic review on playground injuries in the March issue of Canadian Family Physician appear to minimize the suffering of 1500 hospitalized children per year in Canada alone, and fail to cite high-quality evidence that risky play provides greater social and intellectual benefits than less risky or safe play.1

Bad things happen rarely. But just because your child is fortunate enough to go through childhood unharmed despite a laissez-faire attitude, it does not mean you should broadly advocate for it without better evidence that the small potential benefits for all outweigh the rare but severe harms to the few.

Footnotes

  • Competing interests

    None declared

  • Copyright© the College of Family Physicians of Canada

Reference

  1. 1.↵
    1. Bergeron N,
    2. Bergeron C,
    3. Lapointe L,
    4. Kriellaars D,
    5. Aubertin P,
    6. Tanenbaum B,
    7. et al
    . Don’t take down the monkey bars. Rapid systematic review of playground-related injuries. Can Fam Physician. Vol. 65. 2019. p. e121-8. Available from: www.cfp.ca/content/65/3/e121. Accessed 2019 Apr 8.
    OpenUrlAbstract/FREE Full Text
PreviousNext
Back to top

In this issue

Canadian Family Physician: 65 (5)
Canadian Family Physician
Vol. 65, Issue 5
1 May 2019
  • Table of Contents
  • About the Cover
  • Index by author
Print
Download PDF
Article Alerts
Sign In to Email Alerts with your Email Address
Email Article

Thank you for your interest in spreading the word on The College of Family Physicians of Canada.

NOTE: We only request your email address so that the person you are recommending the page to knows that you wanted them to see it, and that it is not junk mail. We do not capture any email address.

Enter multiple addresses on separate lines or separate them with commas.
Value of monkey bars?
(Your Name) has sent you a message from The College of Family Physicians of Canada
(Your Name) thought you would like to see the The College of Family Physicians of Canada web site.
CAPTCHA
This question is for testing whether or not you are a human visitor and to prevent automated spam submissions.
Citation Tools
Value of monkey bars?
Mark H. Ebell
Canadian Family Physician May 2019, 65 (5) 314;

Citation Manager Formats

  • BibTeX
  • Bookends
  • EasyBib
  • EndNote (tagged)
  • EndNote 8 (xml)
  • Medlars
  • Mendeley
  • Papers
  • RefWorks Tagged
  • Ref Manager
  • RIS
  • Zotero
Respond to this article
Share
Value of monkey bars?
Mark H. Ebell
Canadian Family Physician May 2019, 65 (5) 314;
del.icio.us logo Digg logo Reddit logo Twitter logo CiteULike logo Facebook logo Google logo Mendeley logo
  • Tweet Widget
  • Facebook Like
  • Google Plus One

Jump to section

  • Article
    • Footnotes
    • Reference
  • Info & Metrics
  • eLetters
  • PDF

Related Articles

  • No related articles found.
  • PubMed
  • Google Scholar

Cited By...

  • No citing articles found.
  • Google Scholar

More in this TOC Section

  • Water for weight loss
  • Head-to-head IUS comparison needed
  • Clarifying MAID eligibility
Show more Letters

Similar Articles

Navigate

  • Home
  • Current Issue
  • Archive
  • Collections - English
  • Collections - Française

For Authors

  • Authors and Reviewers
  • Submit a Manuscript
  • Permissions
  • Terms of Use

General Information

  • About CFP
  • About the CFPC
  • Advertisers
  • Careers & Locums
  • Editorial Advisory Board
  • Subscribers

Journal Services

  • Email Alerts
  • Twitter
  • RSS Feeds

Copyright © 2023 by The College of Family Physicians of Canada

Powered by HighWire