Do you live in military housing with your family?   Take a look at your window blinds or other type of window coverings, including Roman shades.  If you can see any dangling or accessible cords, your child is at risk.

Window coverings with exposed cords are one of the top hidden home hazards.  Kids can easily and quickly wrap the cords around their necks or become entangled in the cord loops.

In fact, one child strangles in window cords nearly every month and another child is hurt.  This can happen quickly and silently.  Sadly, some of the incidents occurred in military housing. We want to help you and your family to be safe and secure in your home.

So, on Military Consumer Protection Day (July 17 this year), examine your window blinds, curtains and shades closely. Look for exposed, looped cords. What you find may surprise you.  What you do about it can save your child’s life.

Here is how you can safeguard your windows.

• Use cordless blinds or go with blinds or shades that have inaccessible cords. Many stores have these products available for purchase right now.

• Move cribs, beds, and furniture away from windows, because children can climb on them and reach the cords on the window coverings.

• Make loose cords inaccessible, if you are unable to replace older blinds and shades.

In the past, many consumers have used free repair kits from the Window Covering Safety Council (WCSC) to fix their blinds that were made before November 2000.  Keep in mind that these kits do not get rid of the dangling pull cord hazard with many common window blinds.

Kids and cords are a dangerous combination. So, if you have young children in your house, your safest approach is to go cordless or buy blinds with inaccessible cords.

The safest place for your baby to sleep is in a bare crib that meets CPSC’s new federal safety standards.

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Remember the happiness you felt when you first held your baby? Was your next thought “Now what?” Keeping your baby safe was likely one concern. Do you know there are some simple steps that you can take to lessen your worry and create a safer home for you and your baby? Well, there are!

So, relax this Mother’s Day and give yourself the gift of safety. Here are a few safety steps and safety devices that can give you peace of mind and can help reduce the risk of injuries to babies and young children. Most steps are easy to remember; the devices are relatively inexpensive:

1. Bare is Best: Put your baby to sleep in a crib that doesn’t have quilts, comforters or pillows. Nearly half of the infant crib deaths and two-thirds of bassinet deaths reported to CPSC each year are suffocations caused by pillows, quilts and/or clutter in the baby’s sleeping space. Footed pajamas should be enough to keep your baby warm.

1. Safety Latches and Locks: These are a no-brainer to help prevent children from accessing medicines, toxic household cleaners (including single-load liquid laundry packets) and sharp objects.

1. Furniture Anchors: Before your baby gets mobile, crawl around your home and explore. Do you see a dresser, bookcase or other piece of furniture? That looks fun to climb, doesn’t it? Buy and install low-cost anchoring devices to prevent a tip-over tragedy.

1. Water Dangers: Any time your baby is near water, you should remain on high alert. It only takes a few inches of water and a short lapse in supervision for a child to drown. Stay focused on your baby constantly when your baby is in the bath. Do not rely on bath seats or siblings to assist with bath time. PoolSafely.gov also has many simple steps for parents to take in and around pools and spas, including using fences and alarms.

1. Small Batteries: Coin or button-sized batteries that power devices like remote controls, electronic games, toys, musical cards, and hearing aids can cause life-threatening chemical burns in the body in as little as two hours. Even dead batteries can cause serious injuries.  Battery compartments should be secured with a tight screw or strong tape if there’s no screw on the product. Put any item with an unsecured battery up and out of sight and reach of a child. Throw away used batteries in a way that children can’t get to them.

1. Corded Products: Cords such as those on window coverings and baby monitors have strangled children. Keep all cords out of a baby’s reach. Baby monitor cords should be at least 3 feet away from your child’s reach.  CPSC urges parents to use cordless blinds or window coverings that have inaccessible cords in homes with young children.

1. Working Alarms: You never know when you’ll need a working carbon monoxide or smoke alarm—until a disaster happens.  Working CO and smoke alarms should be placed on every floor of a home. Here’s a guide to more information on smoke alarms.

Editor’s Note: Babycenter has cross-posted this blog in English and in Spanish.

Community education programs work. That’s a message we at CPSC hear regularly through our Neighborhood Safety Network.

Last week, during Window Safety Week, Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel in Portland, Ore., touted that message while spreading the word on preventing window falls. “According to Oregon Trauma Registry data, the rate of children’s window falls has decreased 46 percent from 2009 to 2011,” the hospital says in a news release.

The Oregon hospital, along with Safe Kids Oregon and a mom whose child died in a window fall, formed the STOP at 4” campaign to raise awareness about window safety. The campaign’s slogan means that when you open windows, you should stop and lock the window at 4 inches to prevent children from falling from open windows. According to that campaign’s website, the campaign was launched by injury prevention specialists who were concerned by the large number of children in Oregon who fell from second-story windows in warm weather.

Window fall safety is a topic we’ve written about before. We have a fantastic video and a safety alert that you can post on your website and in your community or share in your social media channels to spread the message: Five minutes is all it takes to prevent your child from falling out of a window.  We encourage you to follow these simple steps:

• Install window guards and window stops to prevent children from falling out of windows.
• Don’t depend on screens to keep children from falling out. Screens keep bugs out; they won’t keep children in.
• Whenever possible, open windows from the top, NOT the bottom.
• Keep furniture away from windows to limit a child’s access.

We applaud local safety campaigns such as those in Portland, New York City and other cities and towns. Our Neighborhood Safety Network sends free safety materials including posters, videos, pamphlets and alerts to subscribers around the country to help spread safety in local communities.

Do you want to help address a consumer product-related safety need in your community?  Let our Neighborhood Safety Network team know at nsn@cpsc.gov.

A new CPSC data report shows that 349 people (84 percent of them children under 9) were killed between 2000 and 2011 when TVs, furniture, or appliances toppled over onto them. The 41 reported deaths in 2011 were the highest number reported in one year. That’s an increase from 31 in 2010 and 27 in 2009.

Here are excerpts from our Twitter chat in February with more information and safety tips from CPSC, Kids in Danger and Dr. Gary A. Smith of Nationwide Children’s Hospital.

Help teach all parents to prevent these tragedies. Share the poster above on Facebook. Pin it on Pinterest. Post it on Twitter. Print and post it for parents in your communities.

In 2012, CPSC staff has learned of about 500 incidents involving children and adults who were injured by single-load laundry packets like those shown above. Children have required hospitalization from ingesting the product due to loss of consciousness, excessive vomiting, drowsiness, throat swelling, and difficulty breathing (requiring intubation).

Do NOT let children handle laundry packets. Keep them locked up and out of a child’s sight and reach.

Read and Share this CPSC Safety Alert.

You need to know about cord hazards, so you can prevent your baby from strangling in a cord.

The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA) is working with us on a national baby safety campaign to get the word out to parents and caregivers about the dangers with these cords. Today, JPMA is launching a website, video and advertising. They are giving away free electric cord warning labels to attach to the cord of your baby monitor. This label will remind you, the people who care for your child, and others who may use the monitor in the future about the deadly hazard associated with these cords. Order one, it’s free!

So, take a look around your baby’s crib. Where’s the monitor cord?

Remember, at least 3 feet away is where your monitor should stay.

Yes, 3 feet. As in 3 big feet:

3 Feet is also about the width of your baby’s crib plus 6 inches.

3 feet = 1 yard, if you have a yardstick at home:

The point is, don’t let this happen in your home:

The newly recalled locks are Safety 1^st cabinet slide locks and toilet locks.

They look like this:

Dorel Juvenile Group (DJG), the company that makes these locks, has received 278 reports of cabinet locks and 110 reports of toilet locks that did not adequately secure cabinets and toilets. In one reported incident, a 13-month-old swallowed small, toxic beads from a craft kit.

You can find detailed information on how to identify the recalled locks here.

The cabinet locks were sold at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Great Beginnings, Home Depot, Target, and Walmart from January 2005 through April 2010. The toilet locks were sold at the same stores from January 2000 through March 2009. Both locks were also sold on Amazon.com through April 2012.

If you have these locks, don’t rely on them to keep children out of cabinets and toilets. Contact DJG at www.djgusa.com or toll-free at (877) 416-8105 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday for a free replacement lock. While you are waiting for free replacement locks for cabinets, immediately store dangerous items out of reach of children. While waiting for a replacement toilet lid lock, keep the lid down to prevent access and consider placing a latch on the bathroom door that is out of reach of young children.

If you don’t remove that film, or don’t even realize it’s on a toy, your child could find it before you do. They could mouth it and gag, or even choke on it.

That’s what reportedly happened to two young children playing in their Fisher-Price Luv U Zoo Jumperoo bouncy seats. The mirror on the toy comes with a plastic film cover on it. A Washington state family told a Seattle TV station that they didn’t realize the plastic was on the toy until their son gagged, couldn’t breathe and eventually coughed it up.

In the middle of the plastic film that arrived on this type of toy examined at CPSC was a separate clear sticker with a big red X. The X sticker can pull off without grabbing the plastic film on the toy mirror. On one side of the plastic film is an arrow that points at the X. Again, a parent can pull the arrow off without pulling off the plastic film.

If you see the film on a mirror or other product without an arrow or “X” to guide you to remove it, you might not even realize that the plastic cover is there. So, take an extra look at your children’s toys. Are there mirrors or scratchable surfaces that seem like they should be shiny but aren’t? If so, look for a thin piece of plastic, remove it and throw it away.

This piece of plastic on a child's toy is thin and difficult to notice if you've removed the arrow. Remove plastic like this from all items that you give to your young child.

Other “grown-up toys” like cellphones, video monitors and even stainless steel appliances, have similar plastic film coverings. In all cases, don’t let the “new toy” distract you from carefully removing and discarding the film if you have a small child in your home.

But what are small parts? And why should parents be concerned about them?

First, this is a small parts tester:

The cylinder is 2.25 inches long by 1.25 inches wide. That’s about the size of a 3-year-old’s throat. The opening is slightly wider than a quarter or about the width of two fingers:

Note: Some parents use a toilet paper roll as a practical alternative to a small parts tester.  Parents should be aware that the toilet paper roll is wider and longer than the official tester.

If a toy or a piece of a toy intended for a child younger than 3 fits fully into the cylinder, that toy is banned. This federal law has been around for decades and has helped prevent children from choking on products.  Small parts can get stuck in a child’s throat and be deadly.

In 2010, 9 of the17 toy-related deaths were associated with young children swallowing balloons, small balls and parts of toys or games. From reports that provided details, we know that some of those deaths were from items that fit into the tester. High-powered magnets that we wrote about earlier this month fit in there, too, as do button batteries that power musical holiday cards, remote controls, flashlights and other products in many homes.

Toys and games intended for children ages 3 to 6 that have small parts must have a warning label. This holiday season, as you buy presents for the young children on your list, look closely for warning labels like this:

Be mindful that age labels on toys are not just based on your children’s smarts, but are also for their safety.

If a toy warns that it’s not for children younger than 3, then really, that toy is NOT safe for young children. If your younger child has older siblings around, make sure that big sister or brother’s toys and toy parts are out of reach at all times.

What’s wrong with this picture?

Let’s start with that TV. It’s up high on the dresser. A TV on a dresser or any tall piece of furniture is a recipe for disaster when you have an active toddler or young child in the house. And it doesn’t matter what kind of TV – large tube TVs, flat screens, big or small consoles. Instead, try to place your TV on a sturdy, low base.

Children like to climb. (Just look at the boy in the picture.) See the remote control on top of the TV? A child knows the remote turns on the TV. Kids are likely to try to get to it – or to try to reach any toys on or near the TV as well – any way they can.

So, what’s wrong with that? Too many times, the furniture and the TV fall over onto children, killing them. In fact, one child dies every two weeks when a TV, furniture or appliance falls on him or her. In addition, each year, more than 22,000 children 8 years old or younger are taken to the hospital with injuries.

Here are some real incidents that have happened this year:

• On March 14, a 2-year-old boy in Barrington Hills, Ill., died when the dresser in his bedroom fell on him. (WGN-TV)
• In March, an 11-month old child died when a television fell off of a cabinet onto his head.  The 11-month-old was watching television with his dad and 2-year-old brother. The 2-year-old bumped against the cabinet, causing the TV to fall.
• In January, an 18-month-old girl died when her 3-year-old brother climbed up a four drawer dresser. Both the dresser and TV fell on the girl.

Knowing what you’ve learned so far, take a look at that dresser. It seems stable enough, but don’t be fooled – it is not stable. That same dresser pictured here actually fell over when a young child pulled out all the drawers. As part of your childproofing, it’s important to anchor all furniture to the wall or the floor.

As for those TVs, CPSC recommends anchoring them or strapping them to the wall. CPSC staff has found anchors and straps for furniture and flat-screen and tube TVs for sale at retail and hardware stores.

The right way to bathe your baby: Always within arm’s reach.

A few inches of water. A short lapse in supervision.

That’s all it takes for a child to drown.

Maybe mom, dad or the caregiver left the bathroom to answer the phone. Maybe they left to get a towel. Maybe an older sibling was left to watch a younger one.

These are some of the reasons bathtubs are the second-leading location, after pools, where young children drown.

A new report from CPSC shows that there were 431 in-home drowning deaths involving children younger than 5 years old from 2005 to 2009. The majority of the victims were younger than age 2. Most of the incidents (a startling 83 percent) involved bath or bath-related products.

You can prevent these drownings from happening. Here’s how:

• NEVER leave young children alone near any water for ANY amount of time. EVER. As we mentioned above, young children can drown in even small amounts of water.

• ALWAYS keep a young child within arm’s reach in a bathtub. If you must leave the room, take the child with you.

• Don’t leave a baby or young child in a bathtub under the care of another young child.

• Never leave a bucket containing even a small amount of liquid unattended. Toddlers are top-heavy and they can fall headfirst into buckets and drown. After you use a bucket, always empty it and store it where young children cannot reach it. Don’t leave buckets outside where they can collect rainwater.

• Learn CPR. It can be a lifesaver when seconds count.

Do you see that video baby monitor cord? Yes, the one the baby has in his hand.

Cords close to your baby’s crib are not safe.

Yes, it’s tempting. Parents reviewing video monitors online report placing monitors at the edge of the crib to get a close-up image of their child sleeping: Read some examples:

“We didn’t want to put a perminant (sic) screw into the edge of the crib, so I have the base of the camera attached to the end of the crib with clear tape, which works well enough for now I guess.”

“Our baby monitor … broke when our little one managed to knock it over off his crib.”

“For watching your child close up (e.g. to see if he/she’s breathing or not) you do need to be pretty close to him/her (we just have it at the edge of the crib)….”

Do NOT place corded video cameras or audio or movement monitor receivers in cribs or on crib rails. Infants have strangled and died after becoming tangled in cords, like this:

CPSC knows of 7 deaths and 3 near strangulations since 2002 involving baby monitors. These include video, audio and movement monitors. In addition, CPSC has received reports of at least a dozen other incidents in which babies and young children accessed monitors or monitor cords – that were either in the crib or close enough to the crib for a young child to grab.

Some monitors have permanent warning labels on the product or cord. Others, like some Summer Infant corded video baby monitors, do not have a prominent warning label on the camera or the cord.

Always keep ALL cords and monitor parts out of the reach of babies and young children. Think about 3 feet from any side of the crib –- top, bottom and all four sides.

When buying a video monitor, look for one that takes the picture from far away. The further away the camera and its cord are from your baby or toddler, the safer your child will be. If you use a movement monitor, make sure the cords are taut and not dangling to reduce the strangulation risk. The manufacturers’ instructions show parents how to handle the cords.

CPSC urges parents and caregivers to immediately check the location of your baby monitors, including those mounted on the wall, to make sure that the electrical cords are out of the child’s reach. Check that location periodically to make sure the cords stay out of reach as your child grows.

Video:

simulation of a window cord hazard

Sadly, a young child is likely to die this month, strangled by a window covering cord. The question is: Could that corded window covering be in your house?

The stories we’re about to tell you are tragic, and they are all too real. Both incidents happened earlier this year. Read the stories below, and then look at EVERY window covering in your house. If you have young children around and you see accessible cords ANYWHERE on your window coverings, take heed.

CPSC recommends that you use cordless window coverings in all homes where children live or visit. Cordless window coverings are the safest solution.

If buying new, cordless window coverings is not an option for you, contact the Window Covering Safety Council at www.windowcoverings.org to obtain a free repair kit and install it properly to make your window coverings safer. Some, but not all, of the repair kits will make your window coverings cordless. After you install a repair kit, check your window coverings again for accessible cords.

A little boy and a Roman shade

Four years ago, a mom and dad installed corded Roman shades in their first son’s bedroom. Over time, the family grew, with the first son becoming the oldest of four children. The youngest children included a 22-month-old boy and a newborn baby girl.

A 22-month-old boy strangled on this tangled outer cord.

Mom and dad regularly tried to tie the hanging window covering cords up so that they did not hang down, using a bracket that had been provided for each shade.

One day, the 22-month-old was playing in his older brother’s room. Dad left him playing for about 10 minutes. When Dad returned, he found his little boy standing with both feet on the ground and the Roman shade cord hanging around his neck. The cord was tangled at the end and created a noose around the boy’s neck. Ten days later, the boy died in a hospital. His cause of death: accidental strangulation.

She liked to look out her window at the kids at a nearby child care center

A nearly 4-year-old girl spent her morning playing and watching a movie in her bedroom. The girl liked to look out her window at children arriving and departing from a nearby child care center. This is what her mother thinks she was trying to do on her last morning alive.

The girl’s mother was making lunch around noon. Between 5 and 15 minutes after the girl was last seen, her 6-year-old brother went up to the bedroom that the two shared. He found his sister hanging from the horizontal window blind’s operating cords. The girl’s father didn’t have an easy way to get the cords off his daughter’s neck. While holding her, the dad chewed the cords free. The girl was pronounced dead upon her arrival at the hospital.

In the past year, CPSC has announced the voluntary recall of more than 50 million Roman shades and roll-up blinds made and sold by many different companies. In addition, in 1994 and in 2000, CPSC and the Window Covering Safety Council announced recalls to repair horizontal blinds to prevent strangulation hazards posed by pull cord and inner cord loops.

CPSC Chairman Inez Tenenbaum is urging the window covering manufacturers to stay on track in creating a comprehensive set of safety standards next year. The chairman has called for these standards to design out the risk of strangulation in their products.

Still, it’s imperative that each and every one of us make the window coverings in our homes safe for our families. Here’s how:

• Examine all shades and blinds in your home. Make sure there are no accessible cords on the front, side, or back of the product. CPSC recommends the use of cordless window coverings in all homes where children live or visit.
• Do not place cribs, beds, and furniture close to the windows because children can climb on them and gain access to the cords.
• Make loose cords inaccessible.
• If the window covering has looped bead chains or nylon cords, install tension devices to keep the cord taut.