Researchers from the University of Nottingham have highlighted specific risk factors for fractures, which they say are a common and largely preventable injury.
The study concluded that children under five are more likely to fracture bones in their arms and legs if they were over one-year-old, had older brothers or sisters, had young mothers or mothers with a history of alcohol misuse.
Fractures of legs and arms were independently associated with younger maternal age and higher birth order. Children who were the fourth-born in the family, or later, are three times more at risk of fracture than first-born children.
In pre-school children two-thirds of injuries occur at home with fractures most commonly caused by falls.
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