If your toddler falls from your window, will it necessarily die?

Greg, thanks for bringing to light a big problem seen in PICUs all over the country every year. It seems to peak during the summer, when people tend to leave the windows open, and a child is much more mobile than they were the last summer. Toddlers explore and push chairs against a window to look out. They fall through even sturdy screens and by cranking open a loose window...

Do you know why so many of these kids survive such falls?

Because they have a low terminal velocity and soft bones?

Saturday, a 16 month old child fell 27 feet from a third story window in Connecticut and died.

A watermelon has a lower terminal velocity than a baby, and still explodes. A plastic bag full of water has a baby-like terminal velocity, and is more flexible than a baby, and still explodes.
Lou

Also the heights of these falls appear to be highly variable.

Because they always land on angel wings?

And some people get struck by lightning and survive.

Just because it's possible doesn't mean I want myself or others to experience such things. I doubt the survivors of such events are the majority of people involved.

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I'll chime in and add that parents and caregivers often underestimate the climbing ability of children. I looked after a not-yet-walking baby who managed to climb onto the inside window-sill via a large teddy-bear. Luckily, the teddy-bear broke his fall when he fell back into the room, and the window only opened at the top. I've also seen an infant start climbing floor-length curtains like a rope: crawling is apparently good for the upper body strength. As soon as your child (or the child you care for) is crawling strongly, fit (and use) the sort of security locks that can hold the window open an inch or two. Also make sure the frames are sturdy, especially old wooden ones.

When I was a kid, my parents kept a newspaper clipping - an article about me, at age 18 months, falling out our second-story window, onto a brick sidewalk. I vaguely remember being told that I fell belly-down, with arms and legs spread wide, skydiver fashion. There was no injury to speak of, and I never remembered any of it. 67 years later, I'm only now learning from you, Greg, just how common these things are. I used to be very superstitious, and that incident from my childhood seemed to be good enough evidence that Jaysus was taking care of me.

A bit of child falling trivia:
In 1991 Eric Clapton's 4-year old son fell 49 stories to his death. "Tears in Heaven" was his tribute.

P Smith (Poster #8), the article said there were 3700 injuries but only 8 or 9 deaths annually, due to falling out of windows. You wrote "I doubt the survivors of such events are the majority of people involved.", but they are. Of course these stats include windows of all heights, but still, out of 3700 cases, if even just 1% fell out of second-story windows or higher, that would be 37 cases, with survivors far outnumbering fatalities. Kids do better than watermelons by a wide margin. There is something interesting going on.
Lou

It depends but kids like cats are not as scared or 'tight' in wrong landing form like adults. Maybe they're bottom heavy to tend to hit with midsection and lower half to lessen the head impact percentage chances. Basically they bounce and absorb spread they're lower mass impact comparatively I bet. Cats have the tendency to spread it by landing better on spread feet absorbing leg tendons....and bouncing.
That's my physics theory.

A child's terminal velocity will be less than an adults, just based on mass and surface area. The impact "footprint" will be relatively larger too - I think - of the force of impact will be over a relatively larger area (not absolutely larger!). Maybe tomorrow I'll sit down and work out the physics of falling babies. ;-)

My windows are locked (they can be also locked in the position where they open at the top.
I live on the 13th floor so I'm not going to take chances. And my #1 got a severe case of angry mummy when I caught her sitting on the window sill. Never-ever!

Dilbert: "There is an engineering solution to every problem".

I would suggest DNA for a skin membrane -like a flying squirrel- that folds out when the autonomous neural system detects a fall. If you can keep terminal velocity below the lethal level, and make sure the kid is bottom-heavy during the fall fatalities will be much reduced.
If future cities are built like Fritz Lang's "Metropolis" this would actually make sense.
The alternative -building apartments with child-safe windows- will be condemned as "socialism" as it would require a few more rules. Everyone knows people should adapt to the hardware, not the other way around (snark).

Poster 14: Again, the terminal velocity of a baby is greater than a watermelon and probably not much different than a plastic bag filled with water. Both of the latter would explode. Maybe a sack of thick jelly would survive, maybe not.
Your point about impact footprint does make sense. The watermelon loses points there, but not the bag of water (or jelly).
Maybe our babies have some special adaptations left over from our arboreal ancestors???? They must often have fallen out of trees....
Lou

wwwloujostcom#78674: " P Smith (Poster #8), the article said there were 3700 injuries but only 8 or 9 deaths annually, due to falling out of windows. You wrote "I doubt the survivors of such events are the majority of people involved.", but they are. "

Okay, I misread the numbers. I just hope you're not advocating people drop babies to see how often it works. (I've heard of a bouncing baby boy, but this is ridiculous....) I think it's better we stick with the anectodal evidence on this one.

As for why they survive, I suspect it's the lack of mental development, not just physical as others have mentioned. The brain may not be permanently wired as it becomes in the mid-teens, thus it fixes itself. There have been cases of very young children falling into freezing water and/or suffocating and emerging with no long term brain damage.

In the case shown in the link, half a child's brain was removed at age six, and the remaining half rewired itself to do the job of both halves. The now ten year old girl walks and talks normally, with no learning difficulties.

http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/36032653/ns/today-today_health/t/meet-gir…

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@ #17: "... the terminal velocity of a baby is greater than a watermelon ..."

We need data! I wonder if we can slip this one past the IRB ... ;-)

Tomato Addict, data would be welcome, but as P Smith suggests, getting it would be a problem. Meanwhile it is safe to think about it theoretically--a watermelon is much less dense than a baby, and has a similar cross-sectional area, so the bit about its terminal velocity is probably right.

I think the baby's advantage over bags of jelly or watermelons is that babies are both flexible and hard to rip. Ligaments and muscles are very strong but slightly stretchy, and hold the body together even under severe stress.

@Birger Johansson # 16

But, but wouldn't that mean they'd have to be naked all the time? *petrify in shock at the thought of naked toddlers*

I can tell you (from PICU nursing experience) that it depends on what they hit when they fall. If they fall onto their heads, they die, or have significant brain injury. The article is somewhat misleading in that it does not break down the fall height survival, nor does it break down into the children (I'd bet it is significant) who suffered either significant or devastating injuries. Nor does it tell you what heights the survivor fell from. Infants/toddlers falling from not too great a height, who land on something soft, or have had their falls broken by something on the way down, and do NOT land on their head, have a greater chance of a short ICU stay for bruising and observation. Their soft bones and chubby baby fat can absorb a lot, their heads cannot.

I have three children who despite their best efforts, survived to adulthood. They all had the propensity to climb very shortly after they learned to walk. It was a lot of nail biting for years, but as soon as possible, they were signed up for gymnastics. The idea being, if they were going to fall anyway, they should be taught to fall correctly.

It would be relatively easy and safe to get the terminal velocity of a baby. Simply use one of those free-fall simulators that project air upward at terminal velocity.

As to why Babies don't end up like the aftermath of a Gallagher concert, this seems to be a job for Mythbusters and some ballistics jell.

If you are using an acrylic base, you could try a gel mdiuem. Golden makes excellent gel mdiuems by the tub. They are white when wet and dry clear with a very plastic consistency. They come in light (puddle like) to heavy bodied (thick and hold brush strokes and peaks) gel. They also come in a matte or gloss sheen. I would try a mdiuem bodied gloss gel and smooth it (depending on how thick you'd like the glass) onto an actual glass surface. Be careful of air bubbles. Let it dry completely until clear. peel off gel (like a fruit roll) and cut it to size the window in your piece. Put flatest side up and adhere to painting with super glue. I say super glue because you don't need much and it would be the least noticable. You can paint over this gel with acrylic or oil if you'd likeIf this is an oil based painting, I would just bite the bullet and paint it to look like glass. Unfortunately you can't put acrylic over oil because the oil never dries completely. If you were to do the process above, I'm afraid that the gel will cloud ..however, that might be a great effect. Hope this helpsKimberly