Keep Children Safe From Falling Furniture
Despite previous warnings, children are still getting injured and, even worse, killed by unstable furniture.
Judy and Jack Lambert, whose 3-year-old daughter, Katie, was killed last year when a large wardrobe fell on top of her.“I heard a loud crash,” Judy said. “I saw the mirrored wardrobe was smashed into a thousand pieces and she was underneath. … I was surprised, very surprised. I mean, these things are a hazard in everyone’s home. A hidden hazard.”
Here are some safety precautions you can take:
- Make sure your TV is on a secure TV stand or table and can’t be easily toppled. They can cause the worst injuries because of their size and weight, often landing on children’s heads if they fall. In my family, the TV is on a low TV stand and I always remind my son to keep his hands off.
- Use safety brackets to secure furniture to the wall.
- Don’t leave things that kids want on top of a dresser or other unreachable pieces of furniture children like to climb.
- Put the heaviest things in the bottom of the drawer and the lighter ones on top. (So that’s why everybody puts their underwear in the top drawer! Do you?)
Thanks for the tip, Mom.
CBS News, May 3, 2006
Technorati Tags: danger, children, kids, injuries, furniture, tv
Related Stories
POSTED IN: News and Links about Children's Things
7 opinions for Keep Children Safe From Falling Furniture
Deb L
May 3, 2006 at 1:56 pm
I think a lot of hardware stores sell a special strap that you anchor to the back of large furniture or bookshelves, and then to the wall. So if your kid climbs it in spite of being told not to (which they’ll do. kids are kids after all), it won’t fall over.
Hsien-Hsien Lei
May 4, 2006 at 2:25 am
Deb: What a lot of work! But securing bookshelves and furniture is also good protection against earthquakes.
Lisa
May 5, 2006 at 10:04 am
You can buy them at any Toys R Us or Babies R Us. I have even seen them at Home Depot.
Hsien-Hsien Lei
May 5, 2006 at 4:35 pm
Lisa: Thanks for the heads-up!
Anna
Jun 25, 2008 at 1:12 am
I know this is an old link, but came across this tonight and wanted to share what happened today - our 4 year old son today was pretending to be a super hero, apparently he was tryint to climb a fireplace mantle - when I found him, he was lying very still and all I could see was from his shoulders down.
I screamed and tried to pull the mantle off his face and head - my hubby rushed in and pulled the mantle off and then we rushed our son to the ER.
Thank God he was fine besides the bumps, bruises, and scrapes. However, when we had first met the doctor today at the ER, he said that this happens alot, unfortunately with much dire results.
We have decided to bolt everything down that we can - we were blessed this time around and don’t ever want our children to be hurt like this again.
Susan Gunelius
Jun 25, 2008 at 9:37 am
Anna, Thank goodness your son is alright. Thank you for sharing your story so other parents can learn from it.
Reddy
Aug 16, 2008 at 1:37 am
Today our chest fell on 3.5 year old daughter, we immediately pulled her out, she was scared for first few minutes, she has holding her stomach for next half an hours, we spoke to few doctors, but after that she was normal. We are going to see doctor tomorrow morning. She seemed to be alright after that. It is hidden hazard as someone said we never realize that.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: