Safety experts suggest securing air vents so young kids can’t open them.
Curious young children can already be a handful, but there is another thing parents should be wary of — kids playing in air vents.
Katie Burk says she put her 2-Year-Old twins down for a nap at their home near Nashville. When she went to check on them, she found little Mclaine trapped in an air vent with her head and arms poking out of the floor and her sister Waylin pointing at her.
“Waylin's pointing at her saying 'stuck,' 'stuck,' and Mclaine's in the vent saying, 'stuck,' and so I just lifted her right out. She came right out. Thankfully no cuts or scrapes or bruises or anything like that,” Burk tells Inside Edition.
Exploring air vents seems to come naturally to toddlers and if the covers are not secured, they can be dangerous. Videos posted on social media show how easily little ones get stuck, or worse.
Oregon mom Saydie Reedy’s son Kolson fell eight feet down a vent in 2020.
“My toddler ran up to me and said, ‘Baby in,’ and I said, ‘Baby in where?’ And at that point I was in a panic,” Reedy says.
A police officer climbed into a small crawl space beneath the house to push Kolson back up the vent. Kolson was covered in filth but was unhurt.
Safety experts suggest securing air vents so kids can not open them, which Burk did the same evening she found a stuck Mclaine.
“My husband is in construction so he came home with all his tools and we screwed the vent down,” Burk says.
