Blinds

Do you have mini-blinds in your house? 

We certainly have them in our home. 

Recalls surrounding mini-blinds have been in the news over the past few years - with concerns of choking hazards for children.  Ours are marked with nifty WARNING stickers about strangulation, but there is no sticker telling me the necessary information for a recall....model, or even brand. 

And it isn't until something terrible happens to you that you realize the seriousness of an issue. 

Typically, I wouldn't share something like this - but I think it is important to increase awareness. 

Yes, my children have fallen down stairs, cracked their head on the toilet, ran toward an escalator alone....all things that you can imagine are quite alarming and scary. 

However, I never imagined I would see my child with a mini-blind cord wrapped around her neck. 

IF and WHEN I pull up with blinds, I wrap the extra cord around itself and tie it to the window's lock.  There was a day last week that my husband left the blind up after going out on the roof and didn't take the precaution and let the cords dangle. 

The kids were playing together in Lucas' room, so I took the green light to put in a load of laundry.  In the time it took me to remove the clothes from the hamper and walk across to the laundry room, Mere had gone into our office (the room with the blind left up).  Something didn't feel right about her being in there when I walked past the doorway. 

She didn't scream or cry.  She was quietly yelling "help mommy", and Mere is almost never quiet.

I left the laundry room and went to check on her.  Once entering the room, I was alarmed as I quickly realized that the cord was wrapped around her neck several times.  I untwisted as quickly as possible and saw she had a mark under her chin from struggling to get out. 

I have no idea how it happened or what possessed her to wrap it around herself, but I am VERY grateful that the timing was perfect to prevent anything terrible from happening. 

I immediately cut the cords off all of the blinds in the house. 

Richard claims that it is extreme for me to take all of the blinds down, but I am still considering...

Until then, I will continue to give my thanks for my baby girl.