Designing a Safe Home

Evelyn De Wolfe’s article, “Designing Homes to Prevent Injuries,” (Sept. 17) had a photo of a little boy whose architect mother added an extra horizontal board to the railing around the balcony. While this looks safe in the picture, it may actually prove more dangerous, since a child now has the ability to climb up the railing and more easily fall over the edge.

A much safer approach would have been to add vertical rails between the existing widely spaced vertical boards, making the width between the rails too narrow for the cute little tyke’s head or buttocks to get through.

ROBERT W. EITCHES, M.D.

Los Angeles

Eitches is an assistant clinical professor in pediatrics at UCLA School of Medicine. He is a board certified pediatrician.