Window fall prevention tips

Featured CHOC expert

Amy Frias B.S.

Amy Frias is a health educator in the community education department at Children’s Health of Orange County (CHOC). During her 22 years at CHOC, she has worked in many facets of injury prevention, and health and wellness. She provides education for parents and caregivers, as well as children. In 2012, she became the Safe Kids Orange County Coordinator. In this role, Amy has collaborated with multiple community partners to create a network of resources for communities in need.

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Transcription

Melanie Cole, MS (Host): Welcome to Long Live Childhood, a pediatric health and wellness podcast presented by Children’s Health of Orange County. I’m Melanie Cole. And joining me today is Amy Frias. She’s a community educator and Safe Kids Orange County coordinator. She’s here today to tell us about window falls and prevention tips. Amy, thank you so much for being with us today. How common are window falls?

Amy Frias, BS: Well, falls are the leading cause of unintentional injuries, if you will. When you look at falls, we’re looking at about 28% of those are window falls. And what that is, it’s really common for children that are under the age of five. And that’s because home is where they spend the most of their time. So, window fall injuries can be fairly severe.

It depends on the age of the child, the height of the window, and the type of surface they fall out of. Injuries we see from window falls are bone fractures; severe cranial, chest and abdominal injuries. It’s something where kids are at the greatest risk because of the fact that we have windows all over our home. It’s just one of those things that if a child falls from a window, they end up in our trauma center, especially if it’s like a second, third-story window fall.

Melanie Cole, MS: So, how do these happen? And what age are we looking at? Because I would think that maybe an eight-year-old child, but I mean, I may be totally wrong. They might be going to look out the window and fall or the window opens or somehow this happens. But are we looking at mostly littler kids that don’t know what’s going on and they get up there? Tell us how this happens.

Amy Frias, BS: Well, the truth is most falls do occur with children that are between the ages of one and four, and that’s because of their curiosity, and they’re mobile and they’re exploring. When kids start to get that ability to climb up on furniture and open windows, and they lack judgment, they don’t know what’s going to hurt them, they don’t know what is dangerous. The biggest issue with windows is if anyone pushes on a screen, a screen keeps bugs out, not kids in. Even if a child is playing near a window and then they get pushed and then they hit the screen, the screen isn’t going to keep them from falling out. So, it can happen to older children. But the most common age is that between one and four years old, they get too close to an open window.

Melanie Cole, MS: Wow. And what kind of windows are we looking at? Because sometimes now windows, certainly in high rises, some of these windows don’t even open much, but some windows open sideways. Some still kind of roll outward and some are just normal up and down windows. Does the type of window we have contribute or not contribute to the risk of a child falling out?

Amy Frias, BS: The truth is all windows have safety standards on them. So, the bottom line for parents on what they can do is to not have furniture near windows. Move furniture away from windows. And it’s hard, especially when you’re setting up a room, you know, the couch looks beautiful under that window on the second floor, but that’s not always the best idea because the child can climb onto the couch and access the window, if that makes sense.

The other is if you are going to open a window that it shouldn’t be open more than four inches. That can be achieved by using a window lock or a window guard, either or would be sufficient so that a child doesn’t have access to fall out of that window. And again, that screen is like a false sense of security in the sense that if a child puts any weight on it, it will collapse.

Melanie Cole, MS: So, what do we do? What do you want us to do to prevent these?

Amy Frias, BS: Biggest thing is supervision. Keep an eye on your child as much as possible. You don’t want to open windows more than four inches, because children can squeeze through an opening and fall. Install those window locks, keep the windows from opening more than four inches. Move your furniture away from the windows and that will keep children from climbing up to the window. And keep your windows locked as much as possible.

What we have to remember when it comes to unintentional injuries is that the more layers of protection you put down, you’re going to buy yourself more time from your child being injured. If you don’t have furniture near the window, does that mean your child can’t pull a chair up to the window? It’s going to take them longer to do that than to climb onto a couch that’s right under the window. If you have a lock on the window so they can’t open it, that’s another layer of protection. Can the child eventually unscrew the lock and open the window? Yeah, but it’s still buying you time. So, it’s a matter of, as a parent, buying yourself the most time you can to protect your child, having layers of protection throughout to keep them from being injured in that manner, if that makes sense.

Melanie Cole, MS: Well, it sure does. And these are all such important bits of information that you’re giving us. So before we wrap up, and you are obviously so well educated and a community educator and Safe Kids Orange County coordinator, what would you like parents to know about keeping our children safe in the home, but window falls and prevention, the most important thing you tell people every single day?

Amy Frias, BS: I think that sometimes we forget that things can happen until they do. And a lot of the things that I’m saying, especially with window falls, is people are like, “Yeah, I know, I know my child doesn’t play with the window, they don’t open the window.” The hard part with little kids is we don’t know they can open a window until the window is already open. They don’t communicate that they can do things. We don’t know that they can open the back door until they’re on the other side.

My job or what I want to do is to keep kids out of the hospital and prevention is key. Where as putting a window lock on your window, it’s going to make a difference between your child having to go to a trauma center or having a severe brain injury. They’re very simple steps that you can do. And especially in that zero to five age group, they are in the home so often, making that place as safe as possible is important. And falls are a very leading cause of injuries for kids. So, just doing those small steps to keep your kids safe is what I would want parents to understand.

Melanie Cole, MS: Thank you so much, Amy, for such great information. And it really is about keeping our kids safe. So, thank you for all of this great information. And for more pediatric health and wellness tips, you can always visit choc.org.

Thanks so much for listening to Long Live Childhood, a pediatric health and wellness podcast presented by Children’s Health of Orange County. Together, we can keep kids happy and healthy. Please remember to share on your social channels as we’re really all learning from the experts at CHOC Together. I’m Melanie Cole. Thanks so much for joining us today.

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