'An extra stress for everybody': Parents worry after multiple falls from windows in Ottawa

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“In general, new (Ontario Building Code) requirements apply to new buildings and do not apply to existing buildings, and because of how the code works, it tends to be more than likely the cause(s) of these unfortunate accidents,” he said.

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For now, Newhouse says parents can take steps to install these window safety measures on their own.

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Newhouse also suggests keeping furniture away from windows and the edges of balconies as another safety measure.

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“If there’s furniture near the edge that’s essentially a platform that kids can get higher and lean over,” she explained.

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Children are top-heavy, she said. A child’s head weighs more in proportion to their body than an adult’s does. This means if a child leans over a balcony or out of a window, they can more easily fall to the ground.

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Deschamps from the Ottawa Paramedic Service says he also recommends parents have a conversation with their children when they are old enough.

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“Explain to them what the dos and don’ts, which is mainly: Do not lean on the (window) screens, (and) Do not climb on furniture on the balcony.”

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But how old is old enough? Deschamps says he will leave it up to parents to make that decision.

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After a long day at Alta Vista Drive, Chowdhury and Syed explained to their children in front of me not to go out on the balconies. Chowdhury turned toward the both of them as she repeated her sentence.

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They nodded in silence.

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Child window safety in other countries:

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Other countries like Japan and the United States have implemented safety measures for child window safety.

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Jim Graham, who ran the National Association for Child Window Safety since 2011, wrote Minnesota’s first child window safety legislation, known as Laela’s Law, in 2007. The legislation required devices like strong safety screens in multi-family housing to prevent dangerous falls.

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Since then, he says Laela’s Law has been adopted by about 54 states and resulted in more than 150,000 units of military housing having child safety devices, including window safety screens and bars that would withstand 100 pounds of pressure.

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“Seventy-five per cent of children who suffer a fall from at least a one-storey building will have some degree of brain injury and traumatic brain injury,” Graham said.

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The National Child Safety Association is one example of an organized effort to address this issue. Graham says Canada should follow suit.

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“Any window that can be open will be open all the way,” he said. “No matter what part of Canada you’re in, there will be cases where people will want as much fresh air as they can get.”

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Parents ‘not to blame’

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For Graham, those who point the finger at parents for a preventable issue have “clearly” never been around children.

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“You can be the best mother or father in the world, and the child can go through a window 10 feet from you, and you can’t reach the child before they go out of the window,” he said. “I don’t know of any parent who wants their child to go out of a window. But children go out of windows anyway.”

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Though parents often bear the brunt of the backlash of children who unintentionally fall from windows, the Alta Vista community was compassionate.

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“We feel sorry for the mom. I am a mom too,” Chowdhury said. “How painful it must be for her to witness her own child falling from the 11th floor?”

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Her kids asked her why she was crying so much mid-interview.

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She told them: ‘Because we are human.”

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“Because we are kind to each other. I am crying to feel how the baby is in pain. I am crying to feel how the mama is feeling.”

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