Parents warned about danger of going down slides with a baby on your lap

It may make for a cute photo or video, but parents are being warned of the dangers of going down a slide holding their baby in their lap.

"So many babies and toddlers go to the emergency room," the warning on Instagram reads as a video shows exactly how a child's leg can be injured while coming down.

"It's actually safer for baby to go down the slide alone!"

Watch the video above

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In the video, posted by the team at Baby Photo App Honeycomb, you can see a dad taking a baby down the slide, as many parents tend to do while visiting a playground.

He places the baby on his lap, holding him with both hands, and slides down as the little one enjoys the thrill.

While parents think they are keeping their kids safe from flying off by holding them tight, it can actually be even more dangerous than leaving them to slide down alone.

"Dad's weight can crush baby's leg if it gets caught on the slide," the video states showing how a baby's small leg can fall between their parents and end up stuck.

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"Dad's weight adds more force and velocity that increases the risk of injuries."

The team suggest parents avoid assisting their babies down a slide until they reach an age where they can safely do it on their own.

The video quickly caught the attention of parents, many of whom had unfortunately experienced the danger firsthand.

"My daughter broke her leg that way. I had her legs on top of mine and she stuck her leg out as we were going down and broke it. She was two," said one mum.

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Another woman wrote, "Our friend took his toddler down the slide wearing rain boots - he thought he was being extremely cautious, but the kid's boot was so grabby that it caught on the slide and the momentum of the dad's body weight just snapped the kid's ankle!"

"At the ER the doctor said it is the number one cause of broken legs/ankles in small children," commented a third.

Another agreed with the warning, "Kids squirm and can so easily get fingers or a limb caught between the parent's body and the slide. Just hold them by standing at the side or wait till they're a little bigger."

US mum Jean issued a similar warning on social media last year after her toddler broke his leg going down the slide on her lap.

"Here I was, a mum of 18 months, thinking how sweet to put my toddler on my lap for additional support. Boy, was I wrong and learned the hard way, five short months after he started walking..." she said, adding in a caption: "Broken leg from lapping it on a slide!"

"Always let your little one go down the slide solo!" declared the mum.

It's a finding that has been backed by research.

In 2017, researchers at the American Academy of Paediatrics found more than 350,000 children under the age of six were injured on slides in the US between 2002 and 2015, and many of those injuries were leg fractures.

Of that group, toddlers aged between 12 and 23 months had the highest percentage of injuries, with the most common injury overall a fracture at 36 per cent.

"Many parents and caregivers go down a slide with a young child on their lap without giving it a second thought," said lead researcher Dr Charles Jennissen, from the University of Iowa, in a statement at the time.

"And in most cases I have seen, the parents had no idea that doing so could possibly give their child such a significant injury. They often say they would never have done it had they known."