I have absolutely NO blinds in my house whatsoever. My first day as a Physician Assistant in Pediatrics 12 years ago, there was a 5 year old boy in PICU they took off life support after he tried "flying" with the cord and he hung himself. I will never forget the screams from that mother. You can warn a child all you want, you never know if they will listen. Not a chance I am willing to take.
The fabric tape seems like a good idea in theory, but it doesn't always stick.

I came close to losing Max when he was barely three years old. He was consumed with thinking he could fly. He was standing on the arm of the sofa and reached over and put the cord around his neck! It sounds horribly similar to poly's story. Aimee and I were in the room and I was able to catch him mid air. We immediately fixed the cords to where they were no longer reachable by kids.

Aimee just mentioned this incident today after she heard about the recall.

If you have these cords, put the cords out of reach and call the number for replacement ends. The new cord ends are designed to break apart.

polly, how awful! Seems like these deaths have been toddlers, my kids are older, but I never thought a 5-yo would try such a thing! What do you have for window coverings since you don't have blinds?

golddust - thank goodness you caught him. When my kids were that age we had some old blinds in old house (in the BRs and baths), but I used the cord wind-ups, installed cord stops, cut the ends, and never found them playing with them anyway.

In the new house I have new (2008) romans in practically all the rooms, bought cordless for DD's room but as I said they still have exposed cords in the back that I never thought of. I tried to find cordless for the other rooms but only could get them through Lowes, fabric selection wasn't big and price was higher, so I went with JCP. Then I thought I could buy hardware from Lowes and switch the fabric (just Velcroed on) but that of course was more $$ so I just have original. Wonder if JCP will start offering to replace HW with the cordless ones now that they're selling them? I really hate to replace the cords with the big split ring thing on all my blinds, I raise and lower them quite often and my kids are older. I *do* have to get the cleats installed so the cords aren't hanging to the floor. I could try to put another cleat in lower and wind the cord again on the patio doors so they're not hanging as low.

I checked JCP website last night, still selling corded blinds and no mention of recall.

There may be no mention of a recall yet on the Penneys site because all roman and roll up blinds depending on the mechanics are being re-called that were ever made regardless of the company.

I have roll up matchstick blinds at all of my downstairs windows and supposed child safe ones from IKEA at my upstairs windows. I always make sure that the cords are up and away but most importantly I've always made sure that my childrens cribs/ beds were/ are NEVER w/in arms reach of a blind. It's inevitable that some of my downstairs furniture will be near them but I take great common sense caution. I will not be replacing my blinds but I will be getting the fix-it kit as soon as I can get through.

I was a little alarmed at the dad that they showed on the news over and over whose son got caught up in a blind cord from his crib. They had the crib right by the blind and I think that the dad was a pediatrics Dr. Now don't blast me - I could have misinterpreted something in that story but overall a little common sense please!

2yrs ago I was visiting my sister when suddenly her oldest child came running upstairs and said that so and so was stuck in the blind. We had no idea what she could be talking about and mosied on down and there was her 3rd child HANGING by the neck from the roll up blind cord while 5 other kids were standing there ranging in age from 2yrs to 9yrs. His little face was all red and he couldn't talk. I quick grabbed him and lifted him up to relieve the hanging pressure and then handed him to his mom while I went to work on the cord.

There was a train table under the window and he had climbed up onto it and was doing something he shouldn't have been - never got the whole story as to why he did what he did - let his mom handle that.

I'm not concerned w/ DS1 (never was) and I keep a close eye on DS2 because he's a wild card and we'll see w/ DD but you can NEVER take for granted that even the best child may not try something. I always 'pop in' on the kids wherever they are every few minutes when I hear them playing. Most times they know I'm popping in but many a time I just peek and watch quietly. If I don't hear them I go check right away. It's a lot of back and forth and up and down but I CHOOSE to do that because I'm aware of what can happen w/ the blinds (or anything else) and I CHOOSE to NOT replace them so I must be extra viligent.