Severely depressing PSA

[Deleted]

Warning: child death related.

This dresser fell on a three year old girl and killed her while she was playing alone in her room. The parents had secured bigger pieces of furniture to the wall but not this one.



:-(

So maybe someone will chime in that knows about securing furniture but it's on my to do list now.

Here's the blog post about it but don't read it. Too sad.

lovelightlaughterandchocolate.blogspot.com/2012/12/be-with-me-just-for-today.html

[rikki]

So tragic. When I was about 3 I pulled out the drawers of my dresser to create steps so that I could reach a trinket on the top. The dresser fell over on me. Thankfully my mom was in the next room and rushed in.

I never secure anything that you're supposed to. This is a good reminder that I should once the baby arrives.

[KaraOrNot]

How awful.

[Deleted]

Oh my god, that post has me bawling. I didn't read it all.

[mollybrown]

Thanks so much for sharing. I admit it...I've been very lax about securing furniture. My daughter has pretty much the exact same changing table/dresser, and I had no intention of ever securing it to the wall. I want to go into my children's rooms right now and bolt everything to the wall

[Deleted]

Securing furniture was the only thing DH was serious about, we didn't have cupboard locks or stair gates. He had a co-worker whose son pulled the tv over and had pretty severe brain trauma

[faith194]

I saw that blog post the other day. I could not read it all. How sad:( We have secured DS's play cube thing from Target, but we need to do the same for our dressers in our room, and the one in his room.

[mrshandy]

We moved DS dresser out of his room once he got a big-boy bed. Now it sits in another room.

[bunch]

Oh. That is so sad. Thank you for the reminder. We moved dd and her furniture upstairs this weekend and have yet to secure the dresser we're now using in the nursery as a changing table. I just shut the door.

I would not read this post at work, if anyone is considering it.

[Jem]

We secured the tv and tv stand with adhesive safety straps. They are mostly advertised for earthquake safety. I got these because I didn't know how else to secure a tv. I want to secure DS dressers before we move him to a big boy bed, but I don't think the things that came with his dressers would really work. We live in a super old house and the walls pretty much crumble when we put anything in. Did anyone use adhesive safety straps on dressers?

[Willis Jackson]

This is why every single piece of furniture in my house is strapped to the wall (except for the couch, chairs, and table, obviously).

I insist on sleeping in the same room as DS when we're visiting family for this reason. I can't have him getting into mischief in the middle of the night.

[bunch]

We drilled through the dresser (the wooden part, not the thin backing) directly into a stud with a 3 in screw. I'm about to repaint anyway, but the damage was minimal.

[drloretta]

We have nothing secured in DD's room. Guess I should put it on the to-do list

[froggy76]

This is awful and I'm moving this to-do up on my list. Can anyone recommend the straps they use to secure furniture and their TV?

[ssmjlm]

I have told DH we need to look into securing furniture. Especially the tv and the bookcase in the family room. Not just the stuff in her room.

[Deleted]

I cant read it. MyDD1 climbed my chest if drawers a few years back & it came down on her...luckily the bottom drawer slid out & stopped the dresser from falling more than about 15 degrees. This post got me thinking & realizing it was one on many close calls with her...outlets, chocking, falls, suffocating (get those bumpers out of cribs!), etc. She's a walking miracle. No wonder I am so nuerotic. I will say it is not possible to secure furniture in my house to exterior walls. They are solid plaster over layers of brick & we can't even secure the weight of a curtain rod into one without it pulling right out. We've tried everything. My other 2 kids are just not crazy mischievous/creative/bored like DD1 was I guess--they've had no close calls. It is really scary what can happen.

[sometimesrunner]

I can't bring myself to read the article right now. How awful.

ETA: Okay, made it about halfway through. DO NOT READ THIS IF YOU'RE AT WORK.

[fryjack2]

My niece pulled a dresser onto herself and broke her foot. Thankfully that was all that happened. WE bought the stuff to do this last weekend. Its been moved up on the list of what we need to do. So sad.

[anna7602]

We rely on built-in shelving units to store our clothes and DD's in this apartment. Phew.

[jessnpaul]

Wow... I have an 8 month old and never even thought of this yet! I will be adding this to my to-do list!!!

[egishere]

We had a professional baby proofer come to our house to install gates and do a safety audit. We tethered the dresser in the nursery but I think we should also do the big pieces in other bedrooms. So sad

[water*drop]

Jan 2, 2013 8:57:24 GMT -5 froggy76 said:

This is awful and I'm moving this to-do up on my list. Can anyone recommend the straps they use to secure furniture and their TV?

I ordered these after I read this a couple of days ago. We just got them and haven't installed them yet, but they look simple enough:

www.amazon.com/Safety-1st-Furniture-Wall-Straps/dp/B0073JCV08/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1357147395&sr=8-1&keywords=furniture+wall+straps

I still need to get something for the TV.

[h]

We use the Safety 1st furniture straps. Our kids' dressers and bookcases are secured to the wall, but we do have furniture in the house that is not (in the master bedroom, for example). We really need to go through the house and comprehensively secure everything, especially given that DS2 is a total climber.

[Deleted]

Jan 2, 2013 13:02:25 GMT -5 @fivedogs said:

Jan 2, 2013 10:09:50 GMT -5 L said:

I will say it is not possible to secure furniture in my house to exterior walls. They are solid plaster over layers of brick & we can't even secure the weight of a curtain rod into one without it pulling right out. We've tried everything.

Are you using a masonry bit/concrete screws and masonry anchors? People secure things (bookcases, shutters, etc.) to brick/concrete all the time. But you are correct that the plaster won't hold anything up on its own. You can either secure straps to the wall with the special screws/anchors or secure a sturdy piece of wood to make a rail and then screw the straps (or the furniture itself) to the wood rail.

Oh yeah, we tried those, the wall just disintegrates & with any pressure it pulls out. It's a 113yr od house so maye that's why. Actually I think there is a layer of block in the wall too--the walls are like 8-12" think. Our last attempt was a air gun thing that shoots it in--that failed too. It just made huge holes that pulled out too. We're Architects & big DIYers but are stumped. We just were discussing having our handyman/contractor come out & see if he can get something to stay. It's so frustrating & annoying but especially with a new babe we need this dealt with somehow. Maybe a professional baby proofed would know. Our house is very typical (99% of old homes are all brick) for this area.

[aspentosh]

This is so heartbreaking

My question is, how do you know it needs to be secured?

DD's dresser is a long, low dresser that weighs a ton. I can't imagine her being able to tip it over, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

[vanillacourage]

Anyone have good rec's on how to secure an "old" box-style TV? Everything I see online so far is for flat-screens.

ETA - I did find this. I guess safety takes a backseat to aesthetics.
www.tvsafety4kids.com/installation.html

[GailGoldie]

I sobbed while reading that this morning.... I have 3yo twins and an almost 6yo... the story was all too real to me - and i felt like i owed it to the mom to read the whole story so I did- and went through many tissues... then got on amazon.com and ordered more straps for the few things we still haven't strapped down b/c we thought didn't need it or got lazy (most stuff is, but some still isn't).

and this is another reason we still use our angelcare monitors on the 3yo twins --- so we know when they get out of bed - we're freaks about it... don't want them wandering around playing when we are sleeping --- people think we're crazy still using them - but it lets us sleep better knowing they are still in their beds breathing.

[GailGoldie]

Jan 2, 2013 13:19:20 GMT -5 aspentosh said:

This is so heartbreaking

My question is, how do you know it needs to be secured?

DD's dresser is a long, low dresser that weighs a ton. I can't imagine her being able to tip it over, but I'd rather be safe than sorry.

i would secure it. when she gets bigger/heavier- if she was to pull open drawers and try to climb up - it could topple over, even if it's heavy... full drawers are heavy, esp when a child is climbing on it. It's hard to imagine your tiny baby doing it- but she won't be so tiny in a short amount of time- it goes fast... and like my family- you forget to do things... until you read a story like this

[aspentosh]

Good to know. I'll be purchasing a few more anti-tip straps today! We already have a climber and she isn't even a year yet.