My son is, what we like to call at home, a “Tonka” kid. He’s rough and tumble like those toy trucks. He has a growing collection of scrapes and bruises on his legs and elbows. He falls. He gets up. He falls again. He gets up.

So I wasn’t too worried when I bought him a pair of rubber shoes earlier this year and he stumbled after putting them on. Big deal. He’s not even three years old yet. But then he began to stumble more than usual. He even cut his lip with a bad fall to the cement after barely taking two steps.

Now I realize my son got off easy.

News began circulating this week about an unusual connection between young children wearing those rubber shoes – many of them Crocs or imitations – and accidents at escalators. A Sun-Sentinel story today reports that the Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport is considering whether it should put up caution signs to protect pedestrians. The Metro subway system in Washington, D.C. this summer already began doing so, even going so far as to picture a crocodile on the signs.

I spoke with one Delray Beach mother this week whose Crocs-wearing four-year-old son had a near-tragic accident on the escalator at the Fort Lauderdale airport last month.

“He came very close to losing his small toes,” said Micki Salvato, whose son was rushed to Broward General Medical Center and received 24 stiches on his little foot.

If nothing else, the recent spate of accidents should remind parents the value of good, ol' fashion sneakers for young kids who, lets face it, are usually too busy jumping around to avoid, say, walking into a wall. (OK, I’m speaking for my son and all the other clumsy kids of the world.)

After dealing with more than his share of falls, my son now regularly wears sneakers that give him plenty of ankle support – and have dramatically cut down on his spills. Not enough, of course, to get rid of his body art of bruises and scrapes.

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