Another child hospitalized after falling from window
Another child has fallen from a window in Clackamas County, marking the fourth such incident this month.
A 3-year-old Milwaukie boy is said to have fallen 20 feet from a second story window of his house.
Police said he was on a couch along the wall when he pushed the screen and fell out. He landed on a concrete walkway below.
When first responders arrived, the boy was crying. But now he is listed in serious condition at OHSU Doernbecher Hospital.
This is the fourth incident of its kind in Clackamas County in a three-week span.
Does this happen a lot where you live? What have you done to make sure it does not happen to your kids?
Just for the record.... The child that the article is about was with his grandmother. She was on the couch with him and they were looking out the window. She turned her back for all of a second, while still sitting with him and he pushed on the screen and tumbled out. This was NOT a case of parental neglect. It was an accident that could have happened to any of us. The person responsible for watching him was sitting RIGHT next to him when it happened.
Quoting cupcake_mom:
i never said i was perfect batch. i never said that my kids dont get hurt playing but my kids dont get hurt because of lack of parenting, and no they are not allowed to play in the bathroom, that is not a place for playing, they have toys in the tub but are not allowed to stand up because yes they could fall and get hurt, and no they are not allowed to play in the laundry room because once again that is not a place for playing. they have toys in their room and that is where they can play or outside. just because we have different ways of parenting doesnt mean i think im perfect it just means that i think i parent better than some other ppl because my kids are not involved in accidents like falling out of a 2nd story window. yes kids will get hurt and you cant prevent everything but me as a mom prevent what i can and anyone can prevent a child from falling out of a window with something as simple as moving furniture away from the window or puttin locks on them or OMG watching their kids.
This program was started in Oregon a few years ago to help stop this from happening.
Here is the blog of the parents who started this program because they lost their son when he fell out of a 2nd story window.
http://www.stopat4.blogspot.com/search?updated-max=2011-03-28T21:30:00-07:00&max-results=7
The Campaign to Stop Window Falls grew out of concern by injury prevention specialists who were seeing a high number of children entering the trauma system in Oregon from falling out of second-story windows during warm weather. While relatively few children die from this, one child, Parker Reck, died in 2009. This campaign is dedicated to the memory of Parker.
In the U.S., about 3,300 children under the age of 6 fall from windows every year with 70% falling from second or third story windows. In Oregon, about 50 children ages 0-5 fall from windows annually. The majority of window falls occur between the months of May and September, typically during warmer weather when windows are open for cooling and ventilation.
When opening windows, Stop and Lock at 4 inches.
Window falls are predictable, therefore preventable. On this website, there is information on what families can do to prevent child window falls, where families can find information on what kind of window stop, lock or guard is needed for their particular windows, and where educators can learn about the issue and spread this injury prevention message. We need your help to reduce the risk of injury to children – please learn about window falls and take action!
Window Fall Safety Tips to Protect Your Child
- Only allow windows to open 4 inches. Install a window stop to keep children from opening them further. Be sure an adult can open the window in an emergency.
- If you open windows wider than 4 inches, install window guards with an emergency release device.
- Remember, windows also serve as a secondary means of escape during an emergency. Make sure windows are still accessible and can open fully without special knowledge or tools.
- Do not rely on insect screens to prevent a window fall. Screens are to keep bugs out, not kids in.
- Keep windows locked and closed when not in use.
- Keep furniture — or anything children can use to climb — away from windows.
- Teach children to play a safe distance from windows and enforce this rule in your home (i.e. “we play two big steps from windows”)
- When buying new windows, ask for ones with built-in-4-inch-limiters.
yea that makes it better! if you are going to have you windows open DONT LET YOUR KIDS BE PLAYING IN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and you dont have to be all up in the window to look out of it!
Quoting sarah824:
Just for the record.... The child that the article is about was with his grandmother. She was on the couch with him and they were looking out the window. She turned her back for all of a second, while still sitting with him and he pushed on the screen and tumbled out. This was NOT a case of parental neglect. It was an accident that could have happened to any of us. The person responsible for watching him was sitting RIGHT next to him when it happened.
Quoting cupcake_mom:
i never said i was perfect batch. i never said that my kids dont get hurt playing but my kids dont get hurt because of lack of parenting, and no they are not allowed to play in the bathroom, that is not a place for playing, they have toys in the tub but are not allowed to stand up because yes they could fall and get hurt, and no they are not allowed to play in the laundry room because once again that is not a place for playing. they have toys in their room and that is where they can play or outside. just because we have different ways of parenting doesnt mean i think im perfect it just means that i think i parent better than some other ppl because my kids are not involved in accidents like falling out of a 2nd story window. yes kids will get hurt and you cant prevent everything but me as a mom prevent what i can and anyone can prevent a child from falling out of a window with something as simple as moving furniture away from the window or puttin locks on them or OMG watching their kids.
Wow.... Uptight much?
Quoting cupcake_mom:
yea that makes it better! if you are going to have you windows open DONT LET YOUR KIDS BE PLAYING IN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and you dont have to be all up in the window to look out of it!
Quoting sarah824:
Just for the record.... The child that the article is about was with his grandmother. She was on the couch with him and they were looking out the window. She turned her back for all of a second, while still sitting with him and he pushed on the screen and tumbled out. This was NOT a case of parental neglect. It was an accident that could have happened to any of us. The person responsible for watching him was sitting RIGHT next to him when it happened.
Quoting cupcake_mom:
i never said i was perfect batch. i never said that my kids dont get hurt playing but my kids dont get hurt because of lack of parenting, and no they are not allowed to play in the bathroom, that is not a place for playing, they have toys in the tub but are not allowed to stand up because yes they could fall and get hurt, and no they are not allowed to play in the laundry room because once again that is not a place for playing. they have toys in their room and that is where they can play or outside. just because we have different ways of parenting doesnt mean i think im perfect it just means that i think i parent better than some other ppl because my kids are not involved in accidents like falling out of a 2nd story window. yes kids will get hurt and you cant prevent everything but me as a mom prevent what i can and anyone can prevent a child from falling out of a window with something as simple as moving furniture away from the window or puttin locks on them or OMG watching their kids.
when it comes to my kids getting hurt or not yes i am
Quoting sarah824:
Wow.... Uptight much?
Quoting cupcake_mom:
yea that makes it better! if you are going to have you windows open DONT LET YOUR KIDS BE PLAYING IN THEM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! and you dont have to be all up in the window to look out of it!
Quoting sarah824:
Just for the record.... The child that the article is about was with his grandmother. She was on the couch with him and they were looking out the window. She turned her back for all of a second, while still sitting with him and he pushed on the screen and tumbled out. This was NOT a case of parental neglect. It was an accident that could have happened to any of us. The person responsible for watching him was sitting RIGHT next to him when it happened.
Quoting cupcake_mom:
i never said i was perfect batch. i never said that my kids dont get hurt playing but my kids dont get hurt because of lack of parenting, and no they are not allowed to play in the bathroom, that is not a place for playing, they have toys in the tub but are not allowed to stand up because yes they could fall and get hurt, and no they are not allowed to play in the laundry room because once again that is not a place for playing. they have toys in their room and that is where they can play or outside. just because we have different ways of parenting doesnt mean i think im perfect it just means that i think i parent better than some other ppl because my kids are not involved in accidents like falling out of a 2nd story window. yes kids will get hurt and you cant prevent everything but me as a mom prevent what i can and anyone can prevent a child from falling out of a window with something as simple as moving furniture away from the window or puttin locks on them or OMG watching their kids.
I've always made sure furniture wasn't near the windows. I thought that was common sense?
Our kids "knew" not to play around the windows too but sometimes that's not enough. Here's something I wrote that explains what happened to us. I hope it's interesting/helpful to you and/or you're willing to share it with others who might benefit from it.
Our son fell out his window, suffered a severe traumatic brain injury and it was our fault. Many people have told us that we're the best parents they know and that accidents just happen sometimes, so we shouldn't blame ourselves. But we know the truth is that our sweet son's fall was preventable. In writing this, I must revisit that day and the agony, fear and sorrow that followed it but I'm writing because I hope our story will motivate you to safeguard your windows in time to protect your children from our son's fate.
For those of you who don't want to go through the whole sad story, I'll skip to the point. GET WINDOW GUARDS FOR YOUR WINDOWS IF YOUR KIDS ARE YOUNGER THAN SIX AND YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE STORY TO YOUR HOUSE. I wish someone had reached us with that message before October 21st, 2010 when our 3-year old fell through his screen onto concrete fifteen feet below.
If you're tempted to let yourself think something like this couldn't happen to you, think again. If you believe these kinds of accidents just happen to unintelligent or uninvolved parents, please read on.
Why didn't we have window guards on our windows? It wasn't neglect or laziness, it was because we didn't fully understand them. But don't assume that means we were negligent parents who were unaware of protecting our children's safety. We own and have read many parenting books; thousands of pages of good parenting information. Looking back on it, I even see that there is some information about window safety in them but we still somehow missed the important details of it. We had read about window locks, but thought it was the ordinary locks that were part of our windows, not the child-proof, after-market locks that allow for easy removal in case of fire and are designed to allow windows to open but not to such an extent that a child can fall out. The explanation for that lapse isn't lack of IQ or lack of caring. It's just that parenting is an enormous job with so many components that we missed this one safety device.
We did have many other child protection devices. In fact, we'd gone beyond the well-known safety products such as outlet covers. For example, we had mesh over the rails on our deck even though the deck isn't very high. After a thorough research on car safety, we'd opted for Britax car seats and even have our seven-year-old in a 5 point harness with side impact protection. I'd also made a call to the Washington Poison Center to request Mr. Yuk stickers and put them on anything that might be poisonous for kids to drink even though they were all in locked cabinets. Most heartbreaking is that we had the cords for our blinds wrapped up high so he couldn't reach them and accidentally choke himself. In fact, it was those cords that he was fascinated by and reaching for the day he fell from his window. It was nap time and since he wasn't tired, he was just quietly playing in his room. In that one moment of childhood curiosity, he lost so much!
Nine months later, I am still haunted by visions of blood running out of my son's ear and skull, his eyes fluttering closed and by the uncertainty for his future. My son, my husband and I, and our other two children to some extent, will forever live in the prison created by the consequences of not installing window guards.
Our son was an intelligent, well-behaved little boy. Several days prior to his accident, my husband had explained to him very clearly how dangerous his window could be. He listened and seemed to register every bit of information. He understood it... but just at the level that a 4-year-old can, not the way adults comprehend real dangers. He was curious and in the end, talking wasn't enough. Telling kids to stay away from windows isn't necessarily enough to avoid tragedy. I wish we'd known then what we know now about window guards.
I'm certain there are many educated, involved and loving parents out there who don't have child safety window locks, but would install them if they knew the risk compared with the minimal effort and time to put them on. Talking to your children necessarily isn't enough to avoid tragedy. Fifty children a year fall from windows in Oregon alone and 5,000 nationwide. I strongly encourage you to get child safe window stops or 4-inch window opening limiters if you don't already have them. Here are three window safety products recommended by the Safety Store located inside the Legacy Emanuel hospital:
Guardian Angel window guards. http://www.angelguards.com/.
Kid Co Window Stop. http://www.amazon.com/KidCo-Window-Stop/dp/B003LZU0PG.
KidCo Mesh Window Guard http://www.amazon.com/KidCo-KID-S303-Kidco-Window-Guard/dp/B002H0JDPY
Window guards or child safe window locks can be simple and cheap and they are worth your child's continued well-being. The staff at the Safety Store of Emanuel hospital are passionate and knowledgeable about window safety and more than willing to help. Their number is 503-413-4600.
I try to keep anything they can climb in away from the windows and my oldest two know that they are NOT allowed to play on or near windows, lessoned learned after being caught standing on a dresser at the 2nd story window, that was thankfully closed at the time while I was putting clothes away in my room.
GIVEAWAY: "Brushing and Flossing" WIN a $25 gift card!!
- sarah824
on Jul. 19, 2012 at 6:53 PM