Monitor Cords and Safety
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RBXChas
Posts: 2,708 Member
I just remembered this last night, and please rest assured that I am not one of those people who likes to scare people unnecessarily. So this is my PSA about monitor cords and strangulation hazards.
The first time I heard about this was from my sister. She works in aviation law and knows a bunch of people at the FAA. I guess one of the people she deals with a lot lost his baby girl due to her being strangled by the cord to the video monitor. From what my sister says, the nanny was folding laundry while the baby was supposed to be napping, and she was not looking at the monitor, the camera portion of which was placed directly over the baby's crib. The little girl stood up in her crib (supposedly it was the first time she had ever done that), grabbed the cord to the camera, and strangled herself with it. Apparently because the dad is a bigwig, he is trying to promote legislation requiring companies to put strangulation warnings on monitors.
We use a video monitor, the camera for which is placed directly above our son's crib, so we decided to get those nail-in thingies at the hardware store, the things that secure cords to walls. One day my son discovered the cord between his crib rails and was able to pull it free of the things we had nailed into the wall. He started playing with the cord; thankfully nothing happened because I am psycho and watch him like a hawk if he is in his crib (and I am awake), but I pulled his crib away so that the wall/cord was out of arm's reach. We then plugged the camera into a different outlet and ran the cord across the wall (terribly attractive) way up high and then behind a set of low bookshelves so that he can't reach it or even be tempted by it, since it's more or less out of sight for him.
Yesterday I was looking at his monitor and was reminded of this safety hazard, and since I have never, ever heard anyone else talk about it, I figured I'd bring it up.
So if you have a monitor or plan to have one, please be very, very careful about cord placement for the portion that stays in your baby's room, and please spread the word to others you know with little ones.
To back me up, I was able to find a Consumer Product Safety Commission bulletin about it: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/5066.pdf
I'm not sure when the bulletin was issued, but I never heard a word in the media about it.
Edited to correct a ridiculously long run-on sentence.
The first time I heard about this was from my sister. She works in aviation law and knows a bunch of people at the FAA. I guess one of the people she deals with a lot lost his baby girl due to her being strangled by the cord to the video monitor. From what my sister says, the nanny was folding laundry while the baby was supposed to be napping, and she was not looking at the monitor, the camera portion of which was placed directly over the baby's crib. The little girl stood up in her crib (supposedly it was the first time she had ever done that), grabbed the cord to the camera, and strangled herself with it. Apparently because the dad is a bigwig, he is trying to promote legislation requiring companies to put strangulation warnings on monitors.
We use a video monitor, the camera for which is placed directly above our son's crib, so we decided to get those nail-in thingies at the hardware store, the things that secure cords to walls. One day my son discovered the cord between his crib rails and was able to pull it free of the things we had nailed into the wall. He started playing with the cord; thankfully nothing happened because I am psycho and watch him like a hawk if he is in his crib (and I am awake), but I pulled his crib away so that the wall/cord was out of arm's reach. We then plugged the camera into a different outlet and ran the cord across the wall (terribly attractive) way up high and then behind a set of low bookshelves so that he can't reach it or even be tempted by it, since it's more or less out of sight for him.
Yesterday I was looking at his monitor and was reminded of this safety hazard, and since I have never, ever heard anyone else talk about it, I figured I'd bring it up.
So if you have a monitor or plan to have one, please be very, very careful about cord placement for the portion that stays in your baby's room, and please spread the word to others you know with little ones.
To back me up, I was able to find a Consumer Product Safety Commission bulletin about it: http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/5066.pdf
I'm not sure when the bulletin was issued, but I never heard a word in the media about it.
Edited to correct a ridiculously long run-on sentence.
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Replies
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wow, that's scary, thanks for the info. We don't have a monitor and probably won't for a while. he will be in the room with us for the first couple months probably and then our room is right beside his. I might one anyway for peace of mind, but it's good to keep that in mind....you can never be too careful!0
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Good info to know, thanks for sharing! We've got one our on our registry, but like chickybuns, she'll be in the room with us at the beginning. But definitely a good reminder for when we get to that point!0
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