Securing furniture (grab some tissues).

NativeFloridian

Just got done reading this blog post, made by a mother who lost her 3-year-old to a toppled dresser.  My day is effectively ruined, but this mother's point has been made.  I still haven't secured the furniture since we moved, and now I'm probably going to do it today.  I was especially struck by this post because I know DD2 is a climber.  Ugh, my emotions.

OhSewCrafty

I read that the other day and (after I stopped bawling) quickly ordered these for the furniture and a set of these for the TV.

jackie9480

I have been thinking about that for the tall dresser in my daughters room.  Just other day I had opened 2 drawers at the same time (was cleaning out her clothes that were too small) and the thing started to tip forward.  Freaked me out but I got it stood back up. But was definitely heaving even for me.

 I am making my husband attach it to the wall this weekend.  I couldnt even make it thru the whole blog post.  I am a blubbering mess here at my desk at work...  I am sure my coworkers are wondering what my problem is.

mrsweeber

This blog post could have been written by our family friends who lost their beautiful 2 year old son to the same thing. He was supposed to be napping in his room and instead crawled out of his bed and opened his dresser drawers to climb in them to reach toys on top of the dresser (as he had done a number of times before). Unfortunately, it was too late to save him when it was discovered that the dresser had fallen on top of him. It is just too common to risk not securing dressers, bookshelves, televisions, and anything else that your child could easily pull down on themselves. There are far too many angels in heaven due to this risk.

NativeFloridian

OhSewCrafty:

I read that the other day and (after I stopped bawling) quickly ordered these for the furniture and a set of these for the TV.

Will be ordering the TV straps ASAP.

cheesecakerunner

This is heartbreaking. Thanks for sharing it, though. It's a good reminder and honestly, I never even considered making sure the grandparents (who will be watching the kiddo sometimes) secure their furniture. 

danuli8

Oh my God. That poor woman. I am bawling my eyes out.

ETA: Thanks for the links, OSC. Just ordered both items for myself as well.

drtarajp

this is also making its rounds on FB today. took me 3 attempts to get through it, and i still havent been able to finish it. couldnt stop crying. 

that being said, we will be securing the furniture in the nursery while we are putting it together this month.  

MsAmeera25

This is so sad I didnt even read it but I never even considered this happening. Its crazy the safey hazards you dont even think of when it comes to little ones.

Bink720

I can't even finish the post.  It's so weird that you posted about this today.  We literally went out last night and bought these:

https://www.amazon.com/Quakehold-4162-15-Inch-Furniture-Antique/dp/B000FJP24U/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_z

I'm ashamed to say that DS is 2y5m and it's taken me this long to secure his dresser.  Out of all the things in the house that we have baby proofed, it's so weird that that's the one we all seem to skip.  Thanks for posting the info.  It's definitely one of those things we should all be more aware of.

NativeFloridian

Bink720:

I can't even finish the post.  It's so weird that you posted about this today.  We literally went out last night and bought these:

https://www.amazon.com/Quakehold-4162-15-Inch-Furniture-Antique/dp/B000FJP24U/ref=pd_bxgy_hi_text_z

I'm ashamed to say that DS is 2y5m and it's taken me this long to secure his dresser.  Out of all the things in the house that we have baby proofed, it's so weird that that's the one we all seem to skip.  Thanks for posting the info.  It's definitely one of those things we should all be more aware of.

I couldn't not post.  I had chills after I read what I could.

It is weird, isn't it?  I mean, I think it's mostly because we see dressers as being very stable because they're usually so squat - wider than they are tall, etc.  But the dresser pictured in the post was shockingly small as dressers go, and it shook me a little to realize that I've been so blase about securing the dresser.

brevans02

I so knew better than to try to read that at work....but yes, a very good reminder. We had dd's dresser secured from the get go, but I admit that I would never have though twice about securing a dresser like the one from this incident, it looks so squat and stable.

PipSqueak0313

I never secured dressers when my older two were younger but then I think back, I had their dressers in their closets so they were not accessible for the kids to climb on.

The dressers we had in the kids' rooms after we moved overseas and had no closets were only 3 drawers high so the kids were pretty much taller than the dressers at that point and they had German wardrobe units for hanging clothes but you had to pull on them from a point higher than most kids could reach to pull them over -- no way to climb them and they were bottom heavy.

I will have to give some thought to this though if we keep using dh's chest of drawers in LO's room as it's a taller and heavier dresser than any that I owned previously.

rencontrezmoi

Thank you for posting this. I just registered for furniture wall mounts. What a heartbreaking story.

Bink720

NativeFloridian:

I couldn't not post.  I had chills after I read what I could.

It is weird, isn't it?  I mean, I think it's mostly because we see dressers as being very stable because they're usually so squat - wider than they are tall, etc.  But the dresser pictured in the post was shockingly small as dressers go, and it shook me a little to realize that I've been so blase about securing the dresser.

I realized a couple of days ago that DS's dresser is 100 lbs empty, so full I'm guessing around 150 lbs.  I was telling DH last night that the dresser falling on DS would be the equivalent of someone dropping 750 lbs on me.  Little guy only weighs 27-28 lbs.  Ever since then I've just had this horrible anxiety over the idea of the dresser falling over on him and us not catching it.  Definitely something to consider.  The nursery should be the one room where he can be without us having to worry, yet I left this massive hazard just sitting there.  I've been thanking my lucky stars that nothing happened. 

nyki06

Someone posted something similar on the board a couple years ago when I was pregnant with my daughter. Since I still haven't gotten around to securing her furniture I only let her play in her room if she's supervised. It's funny how that seems easier to me than just making myself secure it. 

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