Parents of newly toilet-trained boys should take a few simple steps to keep their sons' penises safe when they go to the bathroom, a team of UK urologists advises.

There's evidence that crush injuries due to falling toilet seats may be on the rise, Dr. Joe Philip of Leighton Hospital in Crewe in England and colleagues warn in a letter in BJU (British Journal of Urology) International.

While he and his colleagues typically see just one or two such cases a year, if any, Philip told Reuters Health, they treated four different 2- to 4-year-old boys with penile crush injuries in the past several months.

"Thankfully all of the four had only the foreskin swelling, but obviously there's a lot of anxiety for the parents and the kids," Philip said. All of the boys were kept in the hospital overnight until they were able to urinate, but none of them suffered lasting physical damage, he added.

In each case, the youngster was trying to urinate on his own and had lifted the toilet seat, only to have it fall back down. An industry report states that wooden toilet seats are becoming more popular as a possible explanation for the increase in injuries.

Philip and his colleagues offer the following tips to help families of young boys prevent these injuries from happening:

* Install "soft fall" toilet seats in every bathroom in the home, and ban heavy toilet seats made of wood or ceramic from homes with young boys.
* Leave the toilet seat up at all times, until all of the boys in the household can hold the seat up on their own.
* Supervise children every time they visit the bathroom.

Constant supervision can be difficult, Philip conceded, especially during holiday gatherings when a youngster may steal off on his own to demonstrate his newly-found skill. "Children want to show that they are independent," he said.

一組英國泌尿科醫生建議:剛教會孩子自己上廁所的父母應該采取措施,保證自己家里小男孩上廁所的安全。

英國克魯郡禮頓醫院的Joe Philip醫生以及他的同事在給BJU International《英國泌尿科期刊》的一封信中提醒到,有證據顯示由于馬桶圈下落而造成的陰莖受傷案例呈上升趨勢。

Philip在路透社健康欄目的采訪中說,在過去他和同事每年約遇到一、兩例這樣的病例,不過,在最近幾個月中他們已經給4個2至4歲陰莖受傷的孩子做了治療。

Philip 說:“值得慶幸的是這四個孩子只是包皮腫了,不過很明顯的他們的父母和他們自己都受了不少驚嚇。”四個孩子都在醫院過了一夜,直到他們又能尿尿了才離開,他補充說,不會有后遺癥。

這幾個案例中的小男孩都是想試著自己上廁所,他們把馬桶座圈抬了起來,不過沒放穩,接著馬桶座圈又砸了下來。據一份業內報告顯示,木質馬桶現在越來越受歡迎,這也許能是這類案例上升的原因。

Philip和同事提出了以下建議,以幫助小男孩們杜絕這類事故:

1,在家里每個廁所都安裝下落速度較慢且有緩沖效果的馬桶座圈,不要讓小男孩使用木質或陶制這一類馬桶座圈很重的廁所。

2,在孩子們有能力自己把座圈舉起來前平時都要記得把馬桶座圈保持在抬起來的狀態。

3,孩子上廁所的時候要留個心眼

Philip承認不間斷監督孩子上廁所很難,特別是假日聚會的時候,小孩子可能會趁人不注意自己跑去上廁所來證明他的“新能力”。他說:“孩子們總想展現自己獨立的一面”。