A nine-month old Ottawa girl was in hospital on Thursday with head injuries, scrapes and bruises after falling out a second-storey window.

The child was in stable condition after hitting the ground four metres below the window of a townhouse at Blair and Innes Roads in the city's east end around 8 a.m. local time, the Ottawa Paramedic Service said in a news release.

The child remained conscious after the incident, said Jean-Paul Trottier, an Ottawa Paramedic Service spokesman.

"Certainly the injuries seemed to be pretty minor considering the fall," he added.

The child crawled across a bed to reach the sill of an open window at the same height as the top of the bed, the release said. The window had a screen, but it gave way.

The baby's mother was in the room at the time, Trottier said, but the incident happened very quickly.

Police strongly recommended that "absolutely nothing, nothing is in front of the window," Trottier said since it is in a child's "nature to explore and to climb."

He also suggested that parents install devices that stop windows from opening all the way.

On June 26, a three-year-old boy died after falling out of a window on the 15th floor of an Ottawa highrise.