Working in child care can be a deeply rewarding experience, but the responsibility of keeping kids safe and healthy can be a heavy weight to bear. While some safety risks are obvious, small dangers can be easily overlooked and could lead to devastating consequences. Mundane household items, like window coverings, can be serious hazards to small children.
Window blind cords severely injure children every year. By following a few window blind cord strangulation prevention tips for child care providers, you can help protect the kids under your supervision from a tragic accident.
Young kids can easily get tangled in long cords for window blinds and curtains. If the cords wrap too tightly around a child, it can cut off circulation or restrict airways, leading to injuries like scarring, nerve damage, brain damage, paralysis, and even death.
It’s not only the long cords used to operate blinds that cause danger. Inside the blinds are often hidden cords that can entrap a curious child in seconds. These smaller cords, which link the slats and open and close them, can be just as deadly as operating cords.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recommends keeping these cords as short as possible or, ideally, installing cordless blinds. When cords are present, they should be kept out of children’s reach. However, the invisible cords we described above are still a hazard, so the best choice is to eliminate the use of window blinds altogether, if possible.
It also helps to avoid placing anything that appeals to children near a window blind or other corded window cover. Toys, cribs, and other child-centric items should be kept away from hazards like dangling window cords.
Window cord injuries can occur quickly and silently. The best way to protect small kids from getting into something that can harm them is to keep these dangers out of their reach or to eliminate them altogether, as even the most attentive child care providers can miss the split second a child wraps their hand around something unsafe.
Child care workers need to do their due diligence to protect the kids under their watch and to protect their business as well. While accidents can happen to anyone, failing to meet routine safety standards can make care providers vulnerable to negligence charges if something goes awry.
Negligence occurs when a person has a duty to act with a certain level of care but breaches that duty, and someone ends up injured due to that breach.
Child care providers need to ensure they are properly certified and licensed by the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education, based on the size and location of their care center. Most child care facilities are required by 5 CSR 25 § 300.020 to undergo health, safety, and fire inspections, which can help care providers identify and remove hazards.
Not all cord injuries can be attributed to care provider negligence. At OnderLaw, we are dedicated to holding the manufacturers, distributors, and retailers of window coverings accountable for putting unsafe products on the market that create avoidable and unnecessary risks.
Even when you take all the right steps and follow our window blind cord strangulation prevention tips for child care providers, accidents can still happen. As an industry leader in the effort to reform window-covering safety regulations, we handle more blind cord wrongful death cases than any other law firm in the country. If a child is injured by a window cord while in your care, we are here to help you hold these companies responsible for the quality of their products and continue the push to eliminate corded window coverings. Call today for a free case consultation with a compassionate and reliable lawyer at our firm.
