# At what age are window blinds not longer dangerous?



## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

Moving to a new house, which will have no window blinds, but unlike our last house, some of these windows will be large and roller shades won't work well. So in considering what I'm going to get I'm trying to get a feel for at what point I can relax on the window blinds so I can decide whether to invest in a temporary or longer term window solution.

Anyway, its made me wonder at what point do you no longer have to worry about kids and window blind cords? Just thought I'd poll the group to see what people thought.


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## Ironica (Sep 11, 2005)

Hmmm... well, one milestone would be when the cord cannot support their weight anymore. But that's hard to measure.

Otherwise, when they actually understand about death and danger in a concrete way, and wouldn't *do* something that could lead to tragedy? Maybe? And that's going to vary from kid to kid.


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## zoebugsmom (Jan 19, 2004)

DS is 33 months and has window blinds in his window. The cords aren't the circular ones, they're tied off and seperate. We also keep the cords wound up at the top of the window where he can't reach them.


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## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *zoebugsmom* 
DS is 33 months and has window blinds in his window. The cords aren't the circular ones, they're tied off and seperate. We also keep the cords wound up at the top of the window where he can't reach them.

This does not make the window blind safe. I recommend you look through this site: http://www.pfwbs.org/

Just digging that old site up I answered my own question. Children as old as 12 have died from window blind cords.


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## thepeach80 (Mar 16, 2004)

I don't worry, I just don't. We kept them up when the kids were smaller and the crib (not that they used it) was kept away from the window etc. According to the stats on that site, only about 23 children have died per year b/c of cord strangulation. Out of all the other things I have to worry about, that's almost nothing. If you feel better, than invest in something that will make you feel good and safe.


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## yamilee21 (Nov 1, 2004)

What is a good, safe alternative? We had vertical blinds in one room, with the long cord only way up at the top, and my son managed to destroy them. We also have some curtains, and he pulls them down regularly, rod and all. Uncovered windows are not an option for us; the houses are too close together where we live. So far he hasn't touched the mini-blinds, but the safety issue is always in the back of my mind. We had roller shades years ago, but they always broke so easily.


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## Dimples_2005 (Jun 14, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *thepeach80* 
I don't worry, I just don't. We kept them up when the kids were smaller and the crib (not that they used it) was kept away from the window etc. According to the stats on that site, only about 23 children have died per year b/c of cord strangulation. Out of all the other things I have to worry about, that's almost nothing. If you feel better, than invest in something that will make you feel good and safe.

I used to think this too . . . until it actually happened to someone I knew. Here is her story: http://www.nationalhealthreview.net/e-books/V02N04.pdf


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## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *thepeach80* 
I don't worry, I just don't. We kept them up when the kids were smaller and the crib (not that they used it) was kept away from the window etc. According to the stats on that site, only about 23 children have died per year b/c of cord strangulation. Out of all the other things I have to worry about, that's almost nothing. If you feel better, than invest in something that will make you feel good and safe.

I don't worry about, because I have made sure I have no unsafe window blinds in my house. I would never forgive myself if my child died from something I could have easily prevented.

Quote:


Originally Posted by *yamilee21* 
What is a good, safe alternative? We had vertical blinds in one room, with the long cord only way up at the top, and my son managed to destroy them. We also have some curtains, and he pulls them down regularly, rod and all. Uncovered windows are not an option for us; the houses are too close together where we live. So far he hasn't touched the mini-blinds, but the safety issue is always in the back of my mind. We had roller shades years ago, but they always broke so easily.

We have roller shades. Yeah, they do sometimes break,, the kids have a tendency to pull out the stiff plastic or wooden dowel at the bottom, but that could be prevented by gluing the ends together when I put them up. Honestly the basic ones are so cheap (Like $8 each) that its not a big deal to me. My issue in this new house is the windows are very tall, so if the roller shade hits the top it will be hard to pull it down again.

The site I mentioned also has some safe alternatives. They make cordless cellular shades and plantation shutters are also safe. I may consider the shutters for some rooms.


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## Ruthla (Jun 2, 2004)

I stopped worrying with my own kids around age 5 or 6- because that's the age where they understand not to play with the blinds and in general are more reliably safe. If I had a special-needs child with serious impulse control problems, I'd wait until a later age.

I have to wonder about the 12yo who died from strangulation in blinds- was this a neurotypical child?


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## thepeach80 (Mar 16, 2004)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *Dimples_2005* 
I used to think this too . . . until it actually happened to someone I knew. Here is her story: http://www.nationalhealthreview.net/e-books/V02N04.pdf










I understand and I'm sure if I had someone close to me that it happened to, it might change how I feel. There have been several people here lately that have lost their children while they were sleeping in an adult bed, it's not going to make me put them in a crib. Along the same lines, I've known people who have not had their children hurt when they weren't as safe as possible in the car, it's not going to make me turn my children ffing either b/c of that. We all have things that are out 'hot buttons', this is not one of mine. I just can't spend my time thinking about everything that might happen to my children, it would make me sick and in an apt anyways, there's not much I can do about window coverings.


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## emmasmommy (Feb 26, 2004)

Just in the past month on our local news there was a 2 yo girl that died getting caught in the blinds. I hadn't worried too much until hearing that news story. We only have blinds with cords in the Master bedroom and on the patio door in the kitchen. We put them up over the top of the window trim so the kids can't reach them.


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## dex_millie (Oct 19, 2006)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *yamilee21* 
What is a good, safe alternative? We had vertical blinds in one room, with the long cord only way up at the top, and my son managed to destroy them. We also have some curtains, and he pulls them down regularly, rod and all. Uncovered windows are not an option for us; the houses are too close together where we live. So far he hasn't touched the mini-blinds, but the safety issue is always in the back of my mind. We had roller shades years ago, but they always broke so easily.

I was about to mention curtains but I see you tried. I am wondering too. As I plan to just do curtains in my house. I grew up not knowing anything about blinds we do curtains and my father made his own curtain rods and the holes to but them in, a child can swing on them without it coming down. He used real sturdy wood to do it.

I think I would worry until they were around age 5-6 also. Although kids still do crazy stuff around that age.


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## syn_ack89 (Oct 1, 2007)

We have doors that have blinds inside them (between 2 pieces of glass). Is there an option for windows like that?


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## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *syn_ack89* 
We have doors that have blinds inside them (between 2 pieces of glass). Is there an option for windows like that?

Are there any strings outside the glass? Because my MIL has those and its just a crank on the outside, that wouldn't be dangerous.


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## riversong (Aug 11, 2005)

I'm concerned about blinds, especially after reading stories of children who died or nearly died of strangulation on the cords.

We rent my ILs' house and cannot remove all of their blinds while we're here, but on the low windows, I make sure and pull the blinds all the way up to the top of the window every morning. I wrap the cord up at the top. There are blinds in their rooms, but they can't reach them from the floor. I make sure there's no furniture they can climb on near the windows. I figure if they were to push furniture over to the windows I would hear them doing it and go in to investigate before they could hurt themselves.

I hope I'm covering all my bases here!

On several of the windows in our house my MIL installed wooden shutters. You can get the same thing in plastic, probably for cheaper. Are these the plantation shutters you're talking about? That's what I would install in my home- when we finally own one!


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## mightymoo (Dec 6, 2003)

Quote:


Originally Posted by *riversong* 
I'm concerned about blinds, especially after reading stories of children who died or nearly died of strangulation on the cords.

We rent my ILs' house and cannot remove all of their blinds while we're here, but on the low windows, I make sure and pull the blinds all the way up to the top of the window every morning. I wrap the cord up at the top. There are blinds in their rooms, but they can't reach them from the floor. I make sure there's no furniture they can climb on near the windows. I figure if they were to push furniture over to the windows I would hear them doing it and go in to investigate before they could hurt themselves.

I hope I'm covering all my bases here!

On several of the windows in our house my MIL installed wooden shutters. You can get the same thing in plastic, probably for cheaper. Are these the plantation shutters you're talking about? That's what I would install in my home- when we finally own one!

This is what I did when we lived with my parents.

Yeah, those are what I'm talking about when I say plantation shutters.


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## PajamaMama (Dec 18, 2004)

We have plantation shutters and they're easy to remove to open the windows if we want to do that. They come out of the window frame in one big piece, and are held in place in the frame by Velcro. We had to replace one though and it was awfully expensive. The plantation shutters were already here when we moved in. In our last home, we just had regular curtains on the windows, and we would have had the same here if the plantation shutters were not already in place.


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