The question has to be whether other people’s opinions really matter?  What your sister, or neighbour did is going to be highly irrelevant  if your child ends up as one of the statistics in hospital, or worse, due to an accident in the home? We at Kideeko are going to be running a series of articles looking into potential accident spots in your home and showing you how easy and inexpensive it can be just to put some simple and sensible safety measures into place.

Blind Cord Safety

We have all heard the tragic stories of toddlers who have climbed up onto the windowsill and got the looped cords of their blinds wrapped around their neck. These stories can chill us, as parents, to the bone and we always think it couldn’t happen to us.

Facts (ROPSA website)

• ROSPA research shows that most accidental deaths involving blind cords are in the bedroom.
• Children involved in these accidents are aged between 16mths and 36mths.
• Toddler’s heads are mobile however their heads are disproportionate to their bodies, and with muscular control not yet developed, make them unable to free themselves from entanglement
• Toddlers suffocate far quicker than an adult as their windpipes are not yet fully developed – this explains why you always hear these stories include the line. “I was only out of the room for a couple of minutes!”
• The only way to reduce the risk of looped cords is to keep them out of reach of children.

The good news is that all looped cord blinds bought new should now have a safety pack with them, so as to meet the current European standards.But, what about those of us who make up the millions of homes with looped cord blinds already fitted, what can we do? It is essential that some sort of safety device is put into place, either a chain/cord – break connector, chain, cord tidy or cleat.