Buy Safe Toddler Sweatshirts

Thursday 18th of August 2011 12:55:12 AM

Buy Safe Toddler Sweatshirts

With fall so close, it is important to keep a potential danger away from your baby or toddler – the drawstrings on sweatshirts. Unfortunately, there have been toddler deaths associated with clothing and parents are warned to be careful about the clothing they buy for kids. Apparently young children can be strangled to death on the cord of a hooded sweatshirt. Parents are being urged to heed the advice of consumer safety groups and immediately remove the strings and drawstrings from any children’s sweatshirts or jackets.

Any line or cord or string can be dangerous to a child and many pieces of winter clothing come with cords. It is particularly important that children playing outside or in playgrounds wear clothing that cannot get caught in the playground equipment. Strings on a sweatshirt can get caught between the boards. Government consumer product safety agencies have recalled some toddler sweatshirts in the past that had strings considered to be choking hazards.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, airway obstruction, such as suffocation, strangulation and choking, is the 3rd leading cause of death in children younger than the age of fourteen. But a kid being accidentally strangled by their own clothing is rare. The majority of deaths due to clothing were on play slides.

The use of cords or strings in kid’s clothing is extremely restricted in many countries. This is because of the hazards that they pose when the cords or strings catch on cribs, bus doors or playground equipment. However, clothing such as sweatshirts with strings routinely turn up in clothing stores for children. They are often imports from China and other manufacturers which are abroad. Hooded sweatshirts which are considered to be safe are those which use snaps, Velcro, buttons or elastic to fasten the hood.

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