Furniture safety: preventing furniture and television tip-over injuries

If you have a toddler or older child, you know the moniker “curtain climbers” is an appropriate description for most kids when they become mobile. Kids love to climb anything they can and that often includes the furniture. Dressers, entertainment centers, TV stands, all are fair game when it comes to these curious explorers. Unfortunately, kids and many parents are unaware of the potential for furniture tip-over which can cause serious injury and even death.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, “from 2000 through 2005, CPSC has reports of 36 TV tip-over-related deaths and 65 furniture tip-over deaths. More than 80 percent of all these deaths involved young children. Additionally, CPSC estimates that in 2005 at least 3,000 children younger than 5 were treated in U.S. hospital emergency rooms because of injuries associated with TV tip-overs.”

So how do you keep your active child from becoming a victim of a dangerous tip-over? Furniture strapping and brackets designed to prevent tip-overs should be used on any piece of furniture that a child could climb, pull over, or knock over. Don’t be fooled by the weight of a dresser or other item of furniture. Even very young toddlers have managed to pull over very large and heavy pieces of furniture. If there is any doubt as to whether the furniture is stable enough not to be tipped over, go ahead and anchor it to the wall. Some furniture companies now include anchors, straps, or brackets with new furniture, but most do not. You may be able to find furniture straps at the local hardware or home improvement store, but if not, they can easily be ordered online at http://www.babyearth.com/mommy-helper-furniture-safety-brackets.html.

Televisions should be placed on appropriate stands and anchored in such a way that they can not be pulled or knocked off the stand or tipped over. Place the TV as far back on the stand as possible. Never place remotes or toys on top of the TV, as this may encourage climbing. Prevent a TV from sliding by using a rubber mat or grips between the bottom of the TV and the stand.

On an episode of the Ask MomRN Show (http://www.blogtalkradio.com/MomRN), I interviewed Carri McQuerry-Funk, owner of MaddiesMessage.com, about furniture safety and her efforts to bring awareness to other parents about furniture tip-over dangers. In the interview, Mrs. Funk told of the loss of her two year old daughter, Madison Funk, who was killed by her dresser falling over on top of her as she attempted to climb it. Madison’s parents have created Maddie’s Message to warn and educate other parents, and are on a mission to prevent further tragedies. 

Furniture safety is an important safety precaution parents need to add to child-proofing efforts. Take some time today to inspect and secure your furniture

CONTEST #1: What’s Wrong With This Picture???

For the past decade ER and Grey’s Anatomy have been two of the most popular US hospital dramas. Medical consultants are a given at this level. Take a look at the following clips from both of these shows…both show an ambulance arriving at the ER with a young child.

Two questions: What’s right with these pictures? …and more important what’s wrong?

(scenes © ER and Grey’s Anatomy, all rights reserved. A special thanks to Young Estate Studios for creating these clips and making this possible)

• You are seeing a totally accurate picture of what happens today. Clearly someone was holding the child during transport – whether the parent strapped to a stretcher or the EMT or paramedic who is getting off the ambulance holding the child. Regardless, they did not unstrap the child and pick them up to hop out of the ambulance. The consultant got it right.

What’s wrong?

• The consultant got it right – someone was holding that child on the ambulance while transporting them to the hospital. Noone has strapped that child in and currently there’s no law – at least in the US as well as in a number of other countries – requiring them to do so. It is not the medic’s fault, for very little is available in terms of equipment to safely secure young children on ambulances. But what if that child needed CPR? Or even more important, what happens to that child if the unimaginable were to happen and that ambulance were to be hit?

Maybe they’re safer in an ambulance than a car? If we consider that we are highly likely to be going above the speed limit around curves and passing through intersections against the flow of traffic, I’m not sure I believe that. Also I can say without a doubt there is at least 1 child I know of that will never attend public school because we did not keep her secure in the back of an ambulance. So clearly what we’re doing is not working, but until we’re ready to say “this is unacceptable” nothing will change.

Do we shut off the tv until they reach 2?

According to Christakis’ study of 329 2-month to 4-year-old children and their parents, each hour of television exposure was linked to a decrease of 770 words the child heard from an adult. There was also a decrease in child vocalizations and child-adult interactions. Of course the reality is that some of these results were directly related to children being left in front of a TV, however others reflected adults who while present were distracted by the television and not necessarily interacting with their child. And “hearing adults speak and being spoken to are critical exposures that play a role in infants development in language” according to Christakis.

The interaction as well as the distraction – they both start and end with us. It’s us, not the children that can’t handle the tv being on in the background. Maybe we’re the ones who need to be reminded to walk away…because if the study told us anything, it’s that it can be tough for us to tune it out…and the one thing we never ever want to do is tune them out.

Message received.