(HealthDay News) -- The prospect of riding in a shopping cart may get many children excited about a trip to the grocery store.

But the American Academy of Pediatrics says shopping carts contribute to some 23,000 child visits to the emergency room each year. It offers these safety suggestions:

• Consider putting the child in a stroller, wagon, or frontpack instead of a cart.
• If you choose to put the child in a cart, make sure the child is strapped in with a harness or safety belt.
• Never leave the child unattended.
• Don't allow your child to stand up in the cart.
• Never put an infant carrier on top of the cart.
• Don't place your child inside the basket of the cart.
• Don't let your child climb on or hang from a cart.
• Don't let one child push a shopping cart with another child in it.