Death of Mike Tyson’s four year old daughter reminds parents to check for strangulation hazards

May 27, 11:24 AMChild Safety ExaminerSusan Carney

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On Monday, Mike Tyson’s young daughter, Exodus, was found dangling from a looped cord attached to a treadmill in her family’s home. She was rushed to the hospital and spent the rest of her brief life in critical condition and on life support. The little girl passed away yesterday morning.

This heartbreaking tragedy illustrates how quickly curious children, even those who are closely supervised, can get into trouble. It also serves as a humbling reminder to all parents to check around their home for items that may pose a strangulation risk to their infants or young children. Kids love to play with things they know are off-limits, and they love to wrap things around their necks. They generally have little understanding of potential dangers, and lack the upper body strength and coordination needed to disentangle themselves should they get trapped.

For these reasons, parents need to be extra vigilant about keeping an eye out for things that may be hazardous. Even if you feel that your home is completely child-proofed, please take a few minutes to check this list to make sure you haven’t left anything out.  If you are like most parents, there is probably something on this list that you never considered to be a risk for your child.

• Make sure the slats on your baby’s crib are more than 2 3/8 inch apart. Also beware of crib cut-outs that babies could possibly get their heads trapped in.
• Avoid cribs with corner posts; your child’s clothing can get caught on these.
• Remove mobiles from cribs when baby is five months old or can push up on hands and knees.
• Don’t allow babies or children to sleep with bibs, necklaces, or any other items around their necks.
• Make sure that rails on bunk beds or toddlers beds fit closely against the bed from so your child’s head cannot slip through.
• Take ribbons, cords, or strings off of toys before giving them to kids to play, and never attach a pacifier or other item to your baby with a string.
• Remove all drawstrings from jackets, sweatpants, or other clothing that babies or young children wear. Most of these are probably recalled items just for that reason, but check to be sure. Breakaway hoods are best on kids’ jackets, too.
• Store children’s belts, scarves, tights, necklaces and similar items out of kids’ reach. Since much of the time kids spend in their bedrooms is, by nature, unsupervised, these items shouldn’t be left in a bedroom drawer where children can play with them.
• Be sure any dress up clothes that could pose a strangulation hazard are played with only under direct supervision.
• Don’t allow kids to play on playground equipment or bicycles wearing things like long necklaces, purses, backpacks or scarves that can get caught in equipment.
• Supervise kids playing with balloons carefully. They may be tempted to wrap the string around their necks.
• Don’t let kids lie in hammocks that don’t have wooden spreader bars at the end. Avoid toy hammocks altogether. Kids can easily get tangled up in these.
• Gather up and secure any loose cords, cables, wires, ropes, netting or similar items. This includes swing sets, too. Don’t leave anything dangling.
• Make sure there are no loose strings hanging from mini blinds or other window coverings. Companies such as One Step Ahead make products specifically designed to get these strings out of the way. Or, you can attach an inexpensive hook near the top of the windowsill: just make sure to wind up the cord each time the blinds are raised or lowered.

Try to look at your home from a child's perspective.  If it looks like something that might attract your child and could be dangerous, you need to do something about it.