Mom Shopping Cart Fall Stories

In conducting our investigation, we sought out real life stories from moms about shopping carts falls. We found that there were many differing stories, as well as an interesting variety of ways in which children fell or even became injured while in or around a shopping cart. Here are the moms’ shopping cart stories unedited and in full. You can also share your own shopping cart fall story. You can also view more details (such as whether the moms’ pediatricians warned about shopping cart dangers) with the entire shopping cart mom stories (pdf) report.

Name: Beth Pulsifer Anderson Date of incident: 1991 and 1993 (two separate incidents)	Shopping cart incident 1: My daughter, Katie, got stuck in a shopping cart as an infant. She was a climber so I had her harnessed into the shopping cart. She decided to escape by putting both feet into one leg hole of the cart and slithering down. She was so small that she managed to slide down until only her head and shoulders were still in the cart before she got stuck. A staff member and another shopper had to help me extricate her. One held her arms, one held her feet while I tried to pull her loose. We ended up having to strip off her diapers and overalls before we could pull her back up. Shopping cart incident 2: Load your baby in the car, before loading your purchases!!! I was loading a Christmas tree into the car when my toddler deliberately took a thrill ride. She used her feet to push the side of the car and launch her shopping cart / hot rod into traffic. She was laughing her head off as I chased her into a busy road.
Name: Gretchen Minchew Date of incident: October 2000	When my daughter was just 10 months old she was in her car seat on top of a shopping cart. I pushed the cart over a threshold and it popped her off the cart—infant carrier and all. A trip to the emergency room, and an orbit fracture later, I realized it could have been so much worse.
Name: Ria Sharon Date of incident: 2003	My child was 20 months old and yes, she was in the back of the cart. We were checking out and I was faced towards the cashier. My daughter reached for something across the aisle and toppled out. Fortunately for her (and me), she had been taking classes at the Little Gym since she was 7 months old. I say this because they teach them how to break their falls. She grabbed the outside of the cart and held on for a moment, just enough so that the fall was effectively from half the height had she fell directly from her original position.
Name: Marsha Hudnall Date of incident: Around 1992	My 2 - 3 year-old daughter was standing in the basket of the cart, which I knew full well she shouldn’t do but gave in because she was very difficult to manage that day. She reached out of the cart to a shopping display, then tipped over and hit her head on the cement floor. She was stunned, of course; we held her as she cried, then she vomited.
Name: Angela England Date of incident: 2005	Our son had fallen asleep while shopping so we laid him down in the bed of the cart. While I was checking out he woke up and crawled out. It totally caught us off guard because he couldn’t even WALK yet by himself but he managed to pull himself over the edge. I did manage to keep him from hitting his head on the ground and he wasn’t injured, thank goodness, but it was very scary. Shopping carts are simply not convenient for a mother of two young children, but after that incident I strapped my son into the front, and carried my newborn in a sling until my son could walk better.
Name: Sheri Reed Date of incident: 2007	My oldest, 4 at the time, stood up on the side of the cart that was holding my youngest, 4-6 mos or so at the time. When I reached for the eggs, the whole cart went over sideways. The cart and the groceries inside landed on my oldest’s legs. The baby tumbled out. Everyone cried, including me.
Name: Cindy Boecking Date of incident: November 2008	Editor’s note: She submitted an excerpt from her blog in which she posted about her shopping cart incident. This is the excerpt: “Before I had children, I always said ‘That’ll never be me. My kids will BEHAVE in public.’ “Tonight I became ‘that mom’ in Wal-mart. Let me start by saying that my baby girl had a rough weekend. She can’t sleep because she can’t breathe well through her nose, She coughs all night, and we had to cancel her birthday party because of her cold. “Tonight my sympathy got the best of me when she asked if she could ride in the basket part of the shopping cart instead of the top part where she should be. She did a great job of sitting on her bottom and eventually my guard went down when I started to think she might sit there nicely through my whole shopping trip. “While searching for New York Dippin Sticks in the frozen section, I saw her start to stand up. ‘Sit down, missy,’ I told her. From this point on is in slow-motion: I’m walking back to the cart (empty-handed. No dippin sticks) as I see her reach over the side of the cart. One foot came off the cart….then the other….and I reached out and grabbed her as she teetered on the edge of the cart headed headfirst to the ground. With one hand still clutched on her, she flipped around and landed on her feet on the ground… “So I conclude. Who lets their child ride in the basket? That’s ridiculous. They could fall out, cut themselves, get whiplash from the game of narrow-lane-bumper-carts, or worse… Tonight that person was me.”
Name: Janet Edens Date of incident: 1996	My four year old was in the back of the cart because I was taking a long time and he was tired. He then decided he wanted to get out — to play with something I’m sure! — and he stood up, promptly tumbling to the floor and cracking his head on the concrete. I was really upset and a store employee came over and asked my name, which further distressed me. I still don’t know why? For store liability? I was embarrassed and worried that my son was really hurt, so I left the store. I don’t think I even continued with my purchases. He seemed fine, so I never pursued it.
Name: Jen Welton Date of incident: 2003	My son was about 10 months and was sitting in the front part of the cart. I had the strap around him and had turned away to grab 2 gallons of OJ (one in each hand). He was fussing and started leaning WAY over the handles and slipped right over the top. I freaked! I just reacted, and threw out my leg so he wouldn’t hit the floor with his head. He sort of rolled off my leg and landed on his booty on the floor. It happened so fast that the people around me didn’t gasp until it was over! We were very lucky that time.
Name: Robin Wright Date of incident: 1974	This happened long ago and I don’t really recall it since I was only 3 or 4 years old myself. I have bits and pieces, but my mother has told the story often thru the years. My great aunt was babysitting my brother and I that day and took us shopping. It was a discount type store (don’t recall the name - they have been gone for years) and we were in the clothing area where they had the large silver racks of clothing. I was sitting in the child seat area of the cart (never seat belts back then either) and my brother (about 5 or 6) was standing on the outside of the cart at the back hanging on sometimes, sometimes walking besides. At one point my brother went to get on or off the cart and he accidentally tipped the entire cart over, with me in it, and I fell all the way to the ground and hit my head on the garment rack also. My head was cut open and I was bleeding everywhere. My brother was not injured.
Name: Stephanie LH Calahan Date of incident: early 1970s	My mom was grocery shopping and I was along for the ride. I was quite young, but I’m not totally sure how young. This was at a time before shopping carts even had seat belts! Mom pulled up to the checkout and was putting the items on the counter. She was at the front of the cart. I was in the child seat. While she was looking away, I stood up in the seat. She did not know and pulled the cart forward to grab more items and begin the checkout process. As the cart was pulled forward, I was jolted and fell out of the cart onto the hard floor, hitting my head first.