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Accidents occur in the home every day whether it is a fall down the stairs or a child being caught in a roller blind. In fact the majority of emergency room visits are from an accident caused in the home. There are thousands of children admitted to emergency rooms each year from window related injuries. Fortunately these accidents are preventable with just a couple of easy safety measures.
The following are three of the most important safety devices you should use if you are concerned about your child's safety around windows.
Safety Devices for Roller Blinds
Most roller blinds manufactured before 2001 may not meet the current child safety regulations because older roller blinds tend to have long cords that sometimes form a loop. A long cord, especially a looped one, is a danger to a child's safety as children can easily get tangled up in the cord and strangle themselves. Some of the older roller blinds have cords without stoppers, which make them accessible to children. These horrible accidents usually occur to infants and toddlers. Infants who were placed near a window may end up strangling to death in their own cribs. Toddlers tend to die this way after climbing up to see out of a window, falling, and getting caught in the cords of the roller blinds. Fortunately strangulation by blind cord deaths are preventable. Since roller blinds purchased before 2001 pose the greatest strangulation risk, there are a couple of things you can do. You can purchase an upgrade kit that will include safety tassels and stoppers for your older roller blinds, or the best action you can take is to install new roller blinds that are made with child safety devices.
Window Guards
Since window screens are not effective for preventing children from falling out of window, windows guards are one of the best solutions on the market today. Window guards can help prevent serious falls from windows as they act like a gate. Installed in front of the window, window guards are available in both horizontal and vertical bars. When looking for a window guard you will want to find one that has a release mechanism so that it can be fully opened in case of an emergency, like a fire. In order to prevent a child from squeezing through, the bars of the window guard should be a maximum of ten centimetres apart.
Window Stops
A window stop might be a suitable safety device if you have windows that normally stay closed, as the window stop will prevent a window from opening more than ten centimetres. The only downside to using a window stop is that you will not be able to open the window fully, so if you are looking or a safety device that will allow you to have more ventilation you will want to go with the window guard option.
Ultimately window safety is the choice of the parent. If you are at all concerned with the safety of your child you may want to look into childproofing your windows and roller blinds.