Mum warns other parents to 'be careful' after finding son tangled in blind cords

A mum has issued a warning to other parents about vertical blinds after her son became tangled in blind cords that had safety tags in them.

Stevie Niki, a mum blogger from New South Wales in Australia, took to Instagram to issue an important warning to other parents, after she found her son tangled in blind cords.

The 27-year-old explained how her son was playing in the same room while she was folding the washing, when she noticed the cords were wrapped around his neck.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BbBqTM2FX_M

She wrote: 'I ummed and ahhhed whether to even post this because you know, another major mum fail this week that could have killed him (maybe its why i am such an emotional wreck this week) just another thing to criticize another mother, but maybe its more important than me and what you think.. maybe it might stop it from happening to someone else. Too big not to share?'

The mum-of-four then goes on to describe what happened: 'Earlier this week while i was folding the washing, he was playing next to the window, within my view, only 2 metres away (if that). Next thing i know, i hear him start to quietly cry my name "mamma" i looked up from the washing pile and see him caught in the cords, with them wrapped around his neck. I immediately jump up as fast as i can and untangle him.'

'We often read and hear about how the the cords on our blinds (that pull them up and down) should be secured tightly to the frame work .. and mine are! With safety tags attached and all.'

'But these cords along the bottom are clearly a major over sight (at least they were to me) when it comes to the safety of our littles. I would never of given it a second thought if i had not seen what could have seriously hurt him, if i were not right there, with him.'

'Please, check your vertical blinds if you have them on Windows, above floor length and little ones in your home.'

Thankfully, she noticed the scary incident in time and her little boy was fine - but after removing the cords, the mum decided to take these pictures to warn other parents about the dangers of cords like this, in a bid to preventing situations like this happening to other children.

'These photos were taken after what happened, before i removed the cords from our vertical blinds. To show how dangerous they are,' she wrote.

'I obviously didnt take these photos when he was tangled. That would be a rediculously irresponsible and dangerous thing to do. My children, their health and safety is always priority to me, not a post or a picture.

'Just a warning, be careful. He was totally fine just a little stuck, thank goodness.'

According to Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA), there have been at least 30 deaths across the UK due to looped cords since 1999 - 18 of which happened since the start of 2010.

Official advice is to install blinds that do not have a cord when possible, or to keep them short and out of reach of children, which can be done with accessories like cleats, cord tidies, clips or ties.