Child-Safe Window Treatments: What Parents Need to Know

Why this matters more than it sounds

A looped blind cord or chain hanging beside a cot or a bed is a strangulation hazard for a small child. The risk is highest for toddlers who can pull themselves up but cannot free themselves, and incidents typically happen quickly and quietly in a room where a child has been left safely.

This is one of the few home hazards that is close to fully preventable with the right product choice at the point of purchase, at little or no extra cost. That's the whole reason this article exists.

What the standards actually require

Blinds sold in Ireland and across the EU must comply with the EN 13120 safety standard for internal blinds. In practical terms it requires that any accessible cord or chain either cannot form a hazardous loop, or is fitted with a safety device — a tensioner, a breakaway connector or a cleat — that prevents one.

Safety devices must be supplied with the blind and must be installed. This is the part that fails in practice: the device arrives in the bag, the blind goes up, and the tensioner is never screwed to the wall. An unfitted tensioner is not a safety device.

If you're buying from a fitter, ask them directly to fit the safety devices and to show you they're secure before they leave.

The order of preference

Best: no cord at all. Cordless spring-lift blinds, perfect fit blinds and motorised blinds have no accessible cord or chain. In a child's bedroom or a nursery, this is what should be fitted.

Good: a wand-operated blind. Venetian and vertical blinds operated by a rigid wand rather than a cord remove the loop entirely for the tilt function.

Acceptable: a corded or chained blind with a correctly fitted, screwed-down tensioner holding the chain taut against the wall, positioned as high as possible and well away from any furniture a child can climb.

Not acceptable: any looped cord or chain hanging free within a child's reach, in any room a child uses.

The furniture is part of the problem

Cord safety is only half the picture. A cot, bed, chair, toy box or chest of drawers placed under a window gives a child a platform to reach a cord that would otherwise be well out of range.

Keep cots and beds away from windows entirely where the room layout allows. Beyond cords, this also removes the fall risk from an opening window and the risk of a child using furniture to climb onto a sill.

When assessing a room, stand at the window and look at what a determined two-year-old could climb on. That's your real reach height, not the height of the child.

Retrofitting what you already have

You don't need to replace everything. Practical steps for existing blinds:

Fit the tensioner. If the device came with the blind and is still in a drawer, screw it to the wall today.

Add a breakaway connector to a corded blind so the loop separates under load.

Fit a cleat high on the wall and wind cords onto it every single time — this depends on habit, so it's the weakest of the options, but it's better than nothing.

Shorten excess cord. A cord that ends 1.5m above the floor is dramatically safer than one that reaches the skirting.

Replace the blinds in the rooms children sleep and play in first, and work outwards from there.

What to ask for when you're getting quotes

Say it explicitly at quote stage: 'this is a child's room, I want a cordless or motorised option.' A good fitter will steer you there anyway; a rushed one will quote the cheapest corded option by default.

The cost difference is real but modest — a cordless roller is typically €20–€40 more per window than a chained one, and a battery-motorised blind runs roughly double. For the rooms that matter, it's worth it.

And when the fitting is done, check every blind yourself before the fitter leaves: pull on each safety device to confirm it's screwed into something solid, not just pressed against the wall.