Exploring and curiosity are only natural for children and toddlers. However, as a responsible parent, you must ensure that your house is a safe place for them to learn about the world around them. Therefore, it is essential to take care of each part of your house – from securing the roof with an EPDM membrane to make it watertight and protect your home’s interior to adding more insulation to keep the desired temperature in your house throughout the year.
However, while dealing with such significant home improvements, you may overlook some things that seem harmless but can, in fact, put your child in danger. TV and furniture tip-overs are one of them, as they are some of the primary causes of childhood injuries in kids younger than ten years old.
In this article, we will share several tip-over prevention tips to help you minimize the risks and keep your child as safe as possible at home. Read on and make sure to take the right measures!
Secure Furniture
You should protect unstable items such as bookcases, dressers, wardrobes, and free-standing mirrors and make them prone to tipping over. Heavy furniture pieces can simply fall on the child, lead to bruises, fractures, sprains, and even injuries of internal organs.
Thus, it is necessary to take quick, simple, and inexpensive measures to prevent injuries from tipped-over furniture. With a bit of effort, you can avoid 100% of tipping cases and make the house safe for your children.
Here is how you can prevent furniture pieces from tipping over and, therefore, ensure your kids’ safety:
- Choose furniture with a durable, wide base that stands directly on the floor, not on the legs.
- Before buying, it is better to check it for stability in the store. For example, pull out the drawer and make a small effort to test it for strength and make sure it is stable.
- Secure the high or unstable furniture to wall posts or floors with the appropriate mounting hardware. You can use brackets, drywall screws, or wall straps, which you can purchase at home appliance stores or furniture retailers.
- Ensure that you precisely follow the manufacturer’s instructions for installing and securing the anchor devices provided with new appliances or furniture.
- Install locks on the boxes so that they do not open to exclude the possibility of your kids using them as steps for lifting.
- Open only one drawer at a time and make sure that you are keeping all the other drawers closed when you do not use them.
- Store heavy items on the lower shelves of bookcases or in the drawers of wardrobes and chests.
- Do not place tempting objects (such as favourite toys, candy canes, remote controls, tablets or other smart devices) on tall furniture, as this may encourage climbing.
- Do not put unstable furniture in children’s bedrooms or playrooms.
Use Anchor Fasteners
When installing the anchor fasteners, it is necessary to take into account the weight and dimensions of each furniture piece and make sure that any anchor fasteners are strong enough to hold the object. It is equally important to use the correct anchor bolt, taking into account the material of the wall or flooring.
Secure TVs
Considering toddlers’ curiosity and the urge to touch and grab whatever they can get their hands on, your TV wall is another set of objects to take care of. It is big and heavy, and in case it tips over, it is highly possible that your child will get injured.
First of all, you should not place televisions (and other heavy objects) on chests of drawers or other furniture pieces that are not intended for the TV installation. Then, you should take some preventive measures to secure the TV additionally.
There are several options available, depending on where your TV is located and how much you want to spend. Here are some of them:
- TV safety straps (anti-tip belts). It is probably the best and most affordable method for ensuring the stability of a TV. You can find many varieties of television straps on Amazon, but some TVs also come with the straps in a set – it depends on the manufacturer. You should attach the strap to the back of the TV and fix the other end fixed to the wall or stand under the TV.
- A higher stand. It is a practical option if you have a small kid who is not high enough to reach the stand. However, it is also necessary to ensure that the stand isn’t too high and allows you to watch the TV conveniently.
- Mounting on the wall. In order to mount a TV on the wall, you need to check if your TV is compatible with the mounting brackets first. Then, you need to choose from fixed, swivel, tilting, or full-motion TV wall mounts options. Of course considering your needs and the location of your television. Besides, choosing this option to secure the TV will also free up your floor space and give the room a refined look.
You should also reconsider storing other items, such as remote control and cables. The latter may look harmless enough, but they can lead to attempts at climbing and other unsafe activities near the TV, with undesirable results.
Avoid Toy Boxes With Heavy Lids
A kid may be able to open the lid of the toy box but not hold it. Thus, children may be injured if the heavy lid suddenly closes – kids under the age of two are most at risk.
For that reason, when buying a toy box with a lid, it is crucial to ensure that the lid is light and removable. You may also consider installing a special slow-closing hinge on the toy box will help prevent your child’s fingers from getting stuck. Or, better yet, you can opt for a toy box without a lid or remove heavy lids or a child-proof lock.
The latter is crucial because children like to hide in items such as toy boxes, and you don’t want to create the conditions in which your kid can be trapped inside the box. It is essential to make sure that the toy boxes have ventilation holes so that the child can breathe and prevent suffocation. A light plastic box is safer than a heavy box with a lid. If the toy box has a lock or latch, it should be as simple as possible so that the child can open it from the inside.
In Conclusion
When it comes to your child’s health and safety, creating a harmless and secure space for your kid at home should be your top priority. Small kids are curious and rebellious. So it is necessary to ensure that there are no heavy objects within their reach and secure those that are – like TV and furniture pieces.
It will not take much of your time and effort, and most of the tools you may need are inexpensive, making those protective measures very affordable. Besides, most of the possible issues you may exclude at the stage of choosing your furniture and TV, so make sure to take this process seriously as well.
