The grandparent who plays babysitter is not only the cheapest and most easily exploited form of childcare but also the safest, research suggests.

An American study has confounded fears that grandparents are likely to be out of touch with the best modern childcare techniques by showing that they cut the risk of a child getting injured by up to half.

The research at Johns Hopkins University, in Baltimore, Maryland, indicated that infants were less likely to be taken to hospital or see a doctor as an urgent case while being watched over by their grandmother as opposed to other childminders or even their own mother or father.

The study, published in the US journal Pediatrics, analysed medical records of 3,449 children aged between 2 and 3 whose mothers were asked about their care arrangements.

It was prompted in part by fears that grandparents may not be familiar with modern child safety practices. But the researchers found “no evidence to support the hypothesis that grand-parental care is associated with more childhood injuries”. In fact, of the 227 infants who were treated in hospital for an injury in the past year, 32 per cent were being looked after by a nonrelative or were in daycare, compared with 11.9 per cent who were being looked after by grandparents.

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