As a parent, you naturally want to care for your children and do the best that you can to provide for them and ensure their safety. That is probably why you want to be aware of any dangers that could harm your child. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, one of the most dangerous threats to children’s safety is a simple drawstring. Drawstrings are often found in sweatpants around the waistband and sweatshirts around the neck. While drawstrings may seem like an innocent added accessory to your clothing, children can be harmed by these seemingly safe strings.

A reported from the USCPSC says that they receive many reports of drawstrings getting caught in doors, windows or other spaces and causing injury to a child. In some cases, children’s drawstrings can get caught in a car door as the driver speeds off, or on a bicycle wheel as a child is riding. In some cases parent shave reported that their children have been strangled by these drawstrings. The Consumer Product Safety Commission has actually established rules for the manufacturing of clothes with drawstrings to minimize the risk that these clothing items pose to children. On children’s clothing sizes 2T to 12, it is considered dangerous and strangulation hazard to include a drawstring on any clothing products that go around the neck.

Also, drawstrings on the waist and bottom of children’s outerwear have been limited. Clothing makers should not allow the ends of the drawstrings to come out more than three inches from the drawstring channel when the garment is expended to hit’s fullest width. Also, drawstrings are not allowed to have toggles, knots, or other attachments that could potentially get caught on something and bring on injury for the child. If the waist or bottom drawstring of clothing item is one continuous string, then it must be tacked so that the child cannot pull on it until the string is longer on one side then on the other side. To some, this may seem like an over-precaution, but data begs to differ.

Young children have been critically injured and killed in the past because these draw strings will catch and snag on objects. The CPSC is aware of at least 18 deaths because of these drawstrings and 38 serious but non-fatal accidents with only neck and hood drawstrings. The most common danger and most common incident of a drawstring injury is when a child is sliding down a playground or play land slide. Sometimes the drawstrings will get caught in crevices in the slide, strangling the child. This tragic accident has caused many children to pass away early in life. Also, the CPSC has recently received another report which regards a child who had his waistband drawstring slammed in the door of a school bus. The bus drove away with the child’s string still caught, and he was dragged down the street, suffering extreme injury.

It is never wrong to be too cautious when considering your children’s clothing. Other clothing dangers regarding children are any flammable fabrics, and clothes that are not breathable and may cause your child to dehydrate. Some costumes or outfits may even have traces of lead paint, which can be incredibly dangerous and poisonous to your child. Because babies often chew on their clothing, it is essential to make sure that any clothing you use has not traces of this toxic danger. The same goes for toys. Some clothing is also dangerous for babies and toddlers because it comes with choking hazards. For example, if a sweatshirt has drawstrings with toggles, a baby may put the toggle in his or her mouth and choke on the hard plastic. If your child was injured and killed because of a clothing issue such as a long drawstring, don’t hesitate to hire a personal injury attorney and create a product liability case today to seek compensation for your loss.