They are able to reach blind cords, but they don’t understand the danger of strangulation and are unable to free themselves once entangled. “The dangers of blind cords peak between one to four years of age as toddlers gain mobility and become curious about their surroundings,” says Smith. A curious child can quickly get entangled in a window blind cord.”Īnd although blind cords should be on your baby-proofing list, it’s actually slightly older kids who are at the biggest risk.
“As a pediatric emergency medicine physician, I often have heard these words when a parent brings their injured child into the emergency department: ‘Doctor, I turned my head for a minute, and it happened so quickly, I did not have time to stop it.’ Even the best parent in the world cannot watch their child every second of every day. “Some parents may simply think that the risk is small and it will not happen to their child,” says Smith. Start baby proofing! These are the 8 worst hazards in the home for kidsadline Part of the problem is that many “parents are not aware the strangulation dangers of window blind cords (even the inner cords, that can be hard to see) as well as how curious children can end up in trouble within a matter of minutes,” says Gary Smith, one of the study’s coauthors and director for the Center for Injury Research and Policy at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. Most of the kids’ injuries were not severe (93%), but during that time, 271 children died. Unfortunately, window blinds and the dangling cords that adjust their height tend to be far down the list-if on it at all-and the results are often heartbreaking.Īccording to a new report from the journal Pediatrics, more than 16,000 children in the US were treated in emergency departments for injuries caused by window blinds between 19, an average of almost two children every day. When it’s time to baby-proof your home, chances are, you think immediately of electrical sockets, bumpers on sharp-edged coffee tables, and gates at stairs. This new standard affects about 80 percent of window coverings sold in the United States and Canada, affectively banning the manufacturing of dangerous corded blinds. UPDATE: According to a statement from the Window Covering Manufacturers Association, the majority of blinds made after Decemmust comply with a new standard that requires them to be cordless or have short cords that are inaccessible to children.
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