Ohio law requires operators to follow manufacturer guidelines of cleanliness and anchoring — including taking down a bounce house if wind speeds reach 20 mph.
Thirty-two children have been treated for bounce house injuries at Dayton Children’s Hospital in the past year, although none required admission, according to trauma program manager Lisa Schwing.
“Those kids had injuries from fractures to strains, sprains, concussions and lacerations,” Schwing said.
One of them was Emily Sanders’ son, 6-year-old Isaiah.
“I could see a little bit of blood on his hand where he had his hand over his eye,” recalled Sanders.
Isaiah’s eyelid was split when he was accidentally kicked by another child in an inflatable obstacle course last summer. She was surprised to hear about the risk of staph infections from bounce houses.
“It’s not something that had really occurred to me before,” she said. “How many times do they wipe them down in between uses?”
Staph infections
Last year in China, wind swept a bounce house into the air, killing a child. There was a similar deadly case in England in March.
Bounce house injuries range from broken bones to bruises to cuts, but staph infections aren’t recognizable right away.
“It was oozing, and when it oozes it spreads,“ said Brenda Sanderson of Boston, who saw sores multiplying rapidly on her son Max’s body after a trip to a bounce house.
A trip to the doctor confirmed a staph infection, and the doctor told her it was from the bounce house Max had been in two days earlier.
“She said that would be a clear indication, because that is like a wrestling mat. Staph infections (can) come from a gym — something that’s not being washed or cleansed properly will create a bacteria,” said Sanderson.
Getting bounce houses clean and dry is a top priority for Prime Time Party Rental in Dayton.
“It smells like a horse barn inside if you don’t get rid of the water —they start molding,” said owner and president Bart Nye.
His employees inflate the houses under a large awning to keep them out of the rain, then they are cleaned thoroughly with disinfectant and dried completely with fans before they are packed up for the next event.
Take precautions
To keep your children safe in a bounce house experts recommend youcheck the bounce house for wetness, mold and mildew; wash hand frequently; and keep wounds covered.
“Take the same precautions that you would any other activity that kids do at a park or an amusement park,” said Shwing, adding that the risk of infection is small and tracing it to its source is difficult.
“It’s hard to attribute an infection to one source because the infection doesn’t happen instantly. It usually takes several days, and at that point maybe you’ve been in a bouncy house, maybe you’ve been at the pool, maybe you’ve been five other places where you could have gotten a similar type of infection,” Schwing said, adding that the small risk of infection wouldn’t keep her from letting her kids in a bounce house.
The National Association of Amusement Ride Safety recommends that onlykids of similar height and weight bounce together, and that a supervisor is on duty at all times.
Parents should read the manufacturer’s rules, which usually are stitched on the inflatable, according to the National Association of Amusement Ride Safety.
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