Home Child Safety and Protection: How Securing Your Furniture Can Save Lives

Children are susceptible to danger and injury from many sources. One source often overlooked by parents, grandparents, and extended relatives is home furniture safety. If you have a child, particularly under the age of 5, or have frequent visits in your home by a young child, then please read this article and then take a close and hard look at your own furniture safety.

Why Should I Check My Furniture?

Large, heavy pieces of furniture can topple over and crush small children leading to serious injury and death. It happens more often than you think. According to a Washington Post article, the CPSC (Consumer Product Safety Commission) reported 180 deaths linked to furniture falling between 2000 and 2006. In most cases, the victims were young children.

However, older children are victims too. Curious children aged 5 and over are known to climb up bookshelves or other heavy furniture units to reach a book, toy, or movie.

My Child is Too Small to Pull Over a Piece of Furniture or It Can't Happen to Me Syndrome

This is simply not the case. A small toddler can pull open a drawer in a dresser in an attempt to climb up the furniture. As the child climbs, he or she continues to pull open drawers which can cause a heavy piece of furniture to crush the child.

The child can also become stuck in the drawer or can topple objects on top of the dresser onto the child or other nearby children. It can happen to anyone, and it can happen in a blink-of-an-eye.

How Do I Secure My Furniture?

After an acquaintance of mine lost her almost 2-year toddler to a furniture accident, my husband and I knew that we needed to secure everything in our home - television stands, shelves, bookcases, dressers, armoires, etc. Fortunately, you can secure furniture by buying pre-packaged safety kits or purchasing the hardware individually from a home improvement store.

To purchase your own hardware, take inventory of how many furniture items will need to be secured to the wall. We bought l-brackets and eye screws and bolted the pieces directly into the stud.

To purchase safety kits, try one of these websites or check out your local home improvement store:

Safe Beginnings

My Precious Kid

How Can I Raise Awareness on Furniture Safety for Children?

Tell everyone you know! If your child attends a daycare or school, be sure that the facility has anchored all furniture to the wall. If you encounter resistance, then offer the person or institution a copy of document 5004 from the CPSC on how to prevent child death caused by furniture accidents.

There is a currently a bill introduced before the U.S. House of Representatives to set-up certain safety standards to help prevent such furniture-related accidents among children. The bill is the Katie Elise & Meghan Agnes Act (H.R. 4266), and you can sign the petition by visiting the website.

Sources:

Personal experience

Washington Post

Consumer Product Safety Commission

H.R. 4266