This is the season where we start opening our windows because it's getting warmer. A doctor at St. Luke's Children's Hospital in Boise has a warning for families. She says this time of year, the hospital sees more children with injuries from falling out of windows.
Approximately 8,000 children are treated in U.S. emergency rooms for fall-related injuries every day according to the C.D.C.
St. Luke's says they had eight children who were admitted with serious injuries from window falls in 2016.
The doctor says window falls can cause skull fractures, bone fractures and traumatic brain injuries. She says April to June is the time period where doctors see most of those types of injuries in this part of the country.
She says there are some devices that can help prevent window falls.
"This is called a window guard, it can be placed inside a window and secured so that you can have the window wide open and yet it will protect your children from falling through and this can eliminate falls and then the simpler devices are stops and these you place on either side of the window. They're secured to the window frame," said Kendra G. Bowman, MD, PhD, St. Luke's Children's Hospital.
The recommendation is to set those stops so they don't open more than four inches. She says do not rely on screens which are only meant to prevent bugs from coming in and also remove furniture near the window to prevent children from climbing up.
You can purchase those window guards for about 40 dollars and window stops for about 10 dollars online on websites such as amazon.
