Yet another child has died after getting caught up in a blind cord

[Itsfab]

The mother has said what every mother who has lost a child to the same accident has said - parents need to be aware of the dangers and children kept away from them.

I feel like something needs to be done. Common sense can't be relied on, neither can notices on the instructions they come with that not everyone will read.

There needs to be another way of using a blind that means the cord doesn't have to be a single unit. I am sure there is someone clever enough on here, or with a bright teenager, who could come up with something.

Not only is it so very sad to read about another death it is all so frustrating as it didn't need to happen. So many children have died, over 20 iirc. Do people think it won't happen to them or is the message really not getting out there?

[RabbitSaysWoof]

www.preciouslittleone.com/product-information/82/18647/emmay-care-2-blind-cord-wind-ups/?gclid=CK-iz77ug74CFQoYwwodVJ4AKg#cusrevs

[BertieBotts]

Children just don't think - I've intervened with play a couple of times where they put something seemingly innocent - a bag strap or a belt - around another child's or their own neck to use as a horse rein or some kind of pretend lead or safety harness. I've tried to explain how dangerous it is to DS and how important it is never to put anything around his or a friend's neck but it just seems to go over his head. Maybe I'll have a bit of a stronger word with him just in case.

[gamerchick]

all the blinds i've bought in recent years have the little plastic joins which you put on yourself after cutting the cord.. are they not as standard now?

[evelynj]

A shocking government tv ad during corrie is needed methinks.

About 6 months ago I sent an email to your home or style at home who had featured in that months mag a lovely new conservatory with lots of roller blinds & no cleats anywhere. I couldn't believe it-the family had 3 young kids! They didnt even respond :(

My parents house had the pull down to go up mechanism & always worked fine. It's really sad that another child has died unnecessarily.

[MrsTripTucker]

I have blinds and I cut all them so they are no longer looped and shorter.

That poor mum and little girl :( How absolutely tragic.

[Cirsium]

Some posters have mentioned just cutting the cord so that it is two dangling cords. I read somewhere that this is just as dangerous as they can twist back together tightly (like string or leads do in a drawer) and still be a choke/strangling hazard.

[Pagwatch]

Yes, I have just ordered a new blind and the measurements had to include the height from the top of the blind to the floor. The cord will be made so that it is more than 1 meter from the floor.
At least that is a good thing going forward.

[MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic]

We sell a lot of black out blinds that people use in children's bedrooms. We've ended up pulling the old style cord pull ones from sale and replacing them with spring loaded versions. For all the safety instructions you post you just can't guarantee people will follow them so it was the only sensible option. Things have definitely got more safety conscious over the last five years. It's such a truly awful thing to happen.

[BuilderofDuplo]

It's so awful, poor child and parents.

We have the cleat things on all our window frames so there are no loose hanging cords at any time. It makes me to see houses with toddlers and hanging cords. My friend has loose cords just at toddler head height in her living room (and 2 young children), I've never said anything because I didn't want to seem interfering but maybe I should rethink that.

[BertieBotts]

Builder maybe you could just share the article on facebook and say something general like "To any of my friends who have these kinds of blinds please put the cords up out of reach, such a simple thing"

[SnowCoveredHills]

My DP sells blinds. He offers a clip as an extra, which can clip the cord high up out of a child's reach.

He says hardly any of his customers want it - because it's a couple of quid extra, or because it's not as pretty.....

[SnowCoveredHills]

Oh hadn't read Builder's post before I posted - yes that's what DP is talking about, a cleat that you can fit high up so the cord doesn't hang loose.

[springsummerautumnpresents]

www.facebook.com/Banloopedblindcords?fref=nf

[springsummerautumnpresents]

Warning, this video is extremely upsetting!!!

[Itsfab]

PAGWATCH a lot of children appear to have died when they stood on something and then fell or jumped with, or getting, the cord around their necks so having the cord stop 1 metre off the ground wouldn't be good enough imo.

[ShouldBeDoingSomethingProducti]

springsummer - I watched it. I actually feel sick. It's very American and I was a bit eye rolly at the beginning, but felt I should watch it all the way through. I'm glad I did, I think we all need to 'feel a bit sick' if that's what it takes to get the message through.

We don't have any of those blinds but my friend does. She is 100% consciencious and winds the cord around the figure 8 thing she has everytime, but yeah, I can see her DD doing what that little girl did :( I have just emailed her the a link to the video, I couldn't not.

I know it's a re-enactment, but you can picture every moment of it happening just as it did in the video and all the photos at the end of the actual children who this has affected :(

[Pagwatch]

Erm, Ok?

As I don't have furniture near my windows and the youngest child to visit my house in the last 18 months was 10 years old, I'm only commenting that a regulation re a cord is better than no regulation at all.

[Itsfab]

I am not telling you what to do, Pagwatch, but clearly there has been a situation where someone might have realised the dangers and didn't pass it on and I just felt with you saying it would be a metre off the ground it was still a danger.

[Catsmamma]

I always alter my blinds and cords

I take all the excess slats out from the bottom, and then macramé a pull onto the cord, so there is no loop at all when the blind is down.

All blinds I have purchased ALWAYS have warning in the leaflet and recent purchases also have stickers on the blind itself.

It is certainly shocking that people are ignoring safety issues.

[ShouldBeDoingSomethingProducti]

Those cleats wouldn't help though, the child in the video unwound the cord from one! You need something like the 'runner' down the side of the window to pass the cord through or the round things that you screw to the wall that the cord can't come out of.

[ScrambledSmegs]

I didn't realise that my kitchen blind could be a risk, but now I look at it I've realised it's not great. I've just ordered a blind chain tensioner online. It looks a bit flimsy but I hope in practice it will be made of strong plastic and do the job.

[ShouldBeDoingSomethingProducti]

I've just been looking online. I can see a few things that would help if you had roller blinds, but nothing that would help with venetians - other than one 'cord wand' which looks pretty ineffective (too short). I think I would probably get a very slim tube of plastic and cut it to the length of the cord when it's at it's shortest and put a clip on the wall to clip the cord under when it was at it's longest (hope that makes sense) as well as putting a 'quick release' clip on it.

It's definitely putting me off of ordering the roman blinds I was thinking about for the bedrooms.

[SnowCoveredHills]

Just asked DP and yes, it's the 'runner' thingy that they offer - and it's very often refused.

I'm sharing that video with him later so he can tell his clients.

We have the exact same blinds as in that video.

[ouryve]

I used to have a sprung roller blind back in the 90s, runswithscissors

It had a tendency to spring up rather violently and smack you in the face, if you got too close.

[SnowCoveredHills]

Yeah I remember those sprung roller blinds - the spring used to get knackered eventually and they wouldn't roll up.

They've probably improved a lot since my childhood 30 years ago