(Photo: WBOC)DOVER, Del.- The Centers For Disease Control and Prevention says more children, especially young children, are visiting hospitals for unintentional injuries. Some say it could be because their parents are too busy on their phones to pay proper attention to them.
When Chris Hume is with his children he tries to make it a cellphone free environment. But he said not all parents follow his policy.
"You're so focused on your phone and on whatever social media you're plugged into. Then you're attention is going to be divided," Hume said. "You're not going to be giving full attention to your children."
All of that multi-tasking may be behind the recent rise in injuries in young children. According to the CDC, unintentional injuries for kids between the ages of 5 and 9 went up 5 percent in the past few years.
Beth Schmidt, an early childhood educator, said she often has to remind parents to get off their phones in order to spend quality time with their children.
"Most of the time, the person that you're talking to the most is at the other end of a telephone and we forgot the person that's right in front of our face," she said.
Expert say parents do not have to put down the phone completely, but like everything else, moderation is the key when it comes to texting and parenting.
