PSA: My baby got stuck in the blinds

We have THESE BLINDS on 2 windows in our bedroom. The windows are a good 3.5-4 ft off the ground, but our bed is right underneath one of them.

Yesterday, I was ironing a shirt in dd's room and ds was supposed to be in the living room, where I saw him last. I guess about 5 minutes had passed and I heard a shrill scream and crying come from my bedroom. I ran in because we know when our babies our hurt and he was sitting on the bed, hysterically pointing at the blinds and holding his neck telling me it hurt. I looked at his neck and it had red welts just the size and pattern of the twine that is used to hold these blinds up. All the way around his neck. His face was flushed and he had almost like petechia (sp) in a couple of places around it.

I just hugged him and made sure he was okay. But after a while, I started freaking out thinking that he somehow had it around his neck, clearly it had been pretty tight, but he had gotten himself out of it. And if he hadn't? Ugh, the thought turns my stomach.

How did he do it? Well, when you pull up the blind, there is a twine on either side that connects to the one you pull...it rolls up the blind evenly. But, the blind can be slipped out of it and will then completely unravel, leaving a loop of twine where the blind should be held. That loop is what he had put his neck & head into.

So we are replacing these blinds that I love so much with regular panels

I know I should have been watching him better and in a perfect world, he would be by my side every moment, but it can't always be that way, so I'd rather get rid of them than risk having that happen again...maybe next time with different results.