7 Tips to Childproof Your Windows

Ensur­ing the safe­ty of win­dows is cru­cial for house­holds with chil­dren or those who fre­quent­ly care for young ones.

As babies grow into tod­dlers, their innate curios­i­ty dri­ves them to explore every cor­ner of their envi­ron­ment, includ­ing win­dows. This explo­ration can lead to some dan­ger­ous sit­u­a­tions, par­tic­u­lar­ly when chil­dren climb or lean against win­dows with­out under­stand­ing the risks.

Falls from win­dows can result in severe injuries or even fatal­i­ties. Unfor­tu­nate­ly, a shock­ing num­ber of these inci­dents occur every year, main­ly due to the win­dows in many homes not being ade­quate­ly child­proofed.

If you are a par­ent or care­giv­er of a young child, you must rec­og­nize that win­dow screens, while effec­tive for keep­ing out insects, do not pro­vide ade­quate pro­tec­tion against falls. 

Sim­ple pre­cau­tions to make your home’s win­dows safer for chil­dren to be around can sig­nif­i­cant­ly reduce the risk of trag­ic acci­dents. Child­proof­ing your win­dows allows your chil­dren to embrace their curios­i­ty and explore their world with­out fac­ing unnec­es­sary dan­ger.

Best Methods to Childproof Your Home’s Windows

Just the thought of some­thing ter­ri­ble hap­pen­ing to chil­dren in your care over a poor­ly secured win­dow should be enough to moti­vate you to take what­ev­er steps are nec­es­sary to child­proof them. How­ev­er, where can you begin?

There are sev­er­al ways to improve the safe­ty of your win­dows when kids are present. Imple­ment­ing at least one or a few of the fol­low­ing meth­ods should be enough to make your win­dows con­sid­er­ably safer.

1. Ensure the locks are functioning properly

One sim­ple yet effec­tive way to enhance your home’s secu­ri­ty and safe­ty is to ensure that your win­dow locks are in top-notch con­di­tion. Reg­u­lar­ly inspect each lock to ver­i­fy that it oper­ates smooth­ly and effec­tive­ly. If any of your win­dows’ locks are worn out or mal­func­tion­ing, replace or repair them imme­di­ate­ly. 

When select­ing new locks, con­sid­er opt­ing for child­proof mod­els that offer extra secu­ri­ty, ensur­ing that your win­dows remain safe for your chil­dren at all times.

2. Move furniture away from windows

Young chil­dren, par­tic­u­lar­ly those just start­ing to explore their sur­round­ings, are prone to climb­ing and reach­ing for things that catch their eye. There­fore, posi­tion­ing fur­ni­ture near win­dows can cre­ate a dan­ger­ous sce­nario, as it pro­vides an easy boost for adven­tur­ous lit­tle ones.

While it may not be prac­ti­cal to relo­cate all of your fur­ni­ture, con­sid­er rear­rang­ing your home lay­out to keep as much of it away from win­dows. This adjust­ment can sig­nif­i­cant­ly low­er the risk of falls and acci­dents.

3. Secure the window blind cords

Long cords from win­dow blinds can pose seri­ous dan­gers for young chil­dren, cre­at­ing risks of stran­gu­la­tion and entan­gle­ment. To pro­tect them, it is essen­tial to secure these cords effec­tive­ly.

Look for cord wraps or safe­ty devices mount­ed on the wall next to the win­dow. These devices keep the cords out of your children’s reach, help­ing to ensure a safer envi­ron­ment for them through­out your house, espe­cial­ly around your win­dows.

4. Babyproof the window sills

Win­dow sills can be decep­tive­ly haz­ardous due to their sharp edges, espe­cial­ly for younger chil­dren prone to bumps and falls. Add padding to your win­dow sills to mit­i­gate this risk, espe­cial­ly those at a low­er height.

You can use the same soft mate­ri­als that you uti­lized to babyproof the edges and cor­ners of oth­er fur­ni­ture in your home. This addi­tion will pro­vide a buffer against poten­tial injuries for small chil­dren.

5. Install window stops

Win­dow stops are prac­ti­cal devices designed to lim­it how far a win­dow can open, thus pro­vid­ing an added lay­er of safe­ty against falls. After all, if a win­dow can only open par­tial­ly, it is much less like­ly to fall out of it acci­den­tal­ly. One of the most pop­u­lar win­dow stop options is known as the “win­dow wedge,” which is a small plas­tic piece that secures the win­dow in place.

Con­sid­er installing slid­ing door locks high up on slid­ing glass doors, mak­ing them inac­ces­si­ble to small chil­dren. Oth­er options, such as Charley bars, are also effec­tive for secur­ing any type of slid­ing door or win­dow, ensur­ing peace of mind.

6. Childproof casement and awning windows

Case­ment and awning win­dows open using a crank mech­a­nism are par­tic­u­lar­ly easy to child­proof.

In most cas­es, these win­dows fea­ture remov­able crank han­dles, which you can detach and store until you need to use them again. This straight­for­ward mea­sure effec­tive­ly pre­vents young chil­dren from open­ing the win­dows, pro­vid­ing an essen­tial safe­guard for your home.

7. Install window security bars

While open­ing win­dows can bring in fresh air, which may be espe­cial­ly nice dur­ing warmer months, doing so pos­es one of the biggest threats to your children’s safe­ty.

Even if your win­dows have screens, these are not designed to sup­port the weight of a child lean­ing on them and can break if this does hap­pen. Installing win­dow bars—sturdy met­al bar­ri­ers that can be screwed into your win­dow frame—is a high­ly effec­tive solu­tion. These bars will act as a bar­ri­er to keep your child safe even when your win­dows are wide open.

Although some win­dow bar options are not visu­al­ly appeal­ing, it is pos­si­ble to find some that are more aes­thet­i­cal­ly appeal­ing and will blend in more seam­less­ly with your home. For enhanced safe­ty, con­sid­er posi­tion­ing the win­dow bars ver­ti­cal­ly rather than hor­i­zon­tal­ly to pre­vent your chil­dren from using them as climb­ing aids.

How Protection Plus Can Help You Effectively Childproof Your Windows Today

Pur­chas­ing win­dow secu­ri­ty bars can make a huge dif­fer­ence in mak­ing your home safer for your chil­dren, and Pro­tec­tion Plus can help ensure that you get reli­able options.

Our win­dow bars are not only incred­i­bly stur­dy and secure but also aes­thet­i­cal­ly pleas­ing, so installing them does not com­pro­mise the beau­ty of your home.

In fact, we have a wide selec­tion of options for win­dow secu­ri­ty bars, includ­ing win­dow grates and wrought-iron bars and gates that can be cus­tom-made for your home’s win­dows.

Our super-secure win­dow bars will pre­vent poten­tial injuries and acci­dents involv­ing your chil­dren. They will also enhance the gen­er­al secu­ri­ty of your home by pre­vent­ing intrud­ers from enter­ing and dis­suad­ing them from attempt­ing such intru­sions in the first place.

Many break-ins occur through a house­’s win­dows, but if your win­dows are secured with win­dow bars, it will be much hard­er for thieves to gain access. If you have any ques­tions about installing win­dow secu­ri­ty bars in your home, one of our experts would glad­ly offer valu­able guid­ance.

For more infor­ma­tion about our win­dow secu­ri­ty bars or our numer­ous oth­er home secu­ri­ty solu­tions, call Pro­tec­tion Plus Secu­ri­ty Solu­tions at 1–844-365‑7587 or con­tact us here.