Did you know? The three most common types of falls in the home that can cause injury to children — from the stairs, from an elevated surface such as a changing station, and out of windows — can be easily avoided. Here are some tips and recommendations for how you can prevent them.
Window safety checklist:
- Is the area underneath the window free from items a child could climb on?
- Are there safety bars or window guards installed on upper-story windows?
- Are there window stops to keep the windows from opening more than 4 inches?
- Are window blind cords tied with clothespins or specially designed cord clips so they’re out of reach of children?
Find a complete list of household safety checklists here.
Window fall prevention tips:
- Don’t rely on window screens to keep kids from falling out of windows. Screens keep bugs out but won’t keep kids in.
- If you have windows that move up and down, you can often open the top of the window for air while keeping the bottom window in place.
- Move chairs, cribs, beds and other furniture away from windows to prevent children from climbing onto sills.
- If you can add hardware to your window frames, use window guards to prevent the windows from opening too far. This will help as kids can fall from windows opened as little as 5 inches, or 12.7 centimeters. Make sure window guards are childproof but also easy for adults to open in case of fire.
- If you can’t add anything to your windows or don’t feel comfortable doing so, ask your landlord to help you child-proof your windows. Otherwise, keep windows locked when possible and supervise children at all times.
