The Reality on Bunk Bed Safety
Bunk bed safety is extremely important because so many children get hurt every year by playing around on their bunk beds. These children are usually under the age of 15 and the accidents are usually related to the children letting their imagination walk on the wild side. While horsing around is a contributing factor to injuries with bunk beds, there may be other issues with faulty structure or the inner workings of the bunk bed.
There are some standards that have been developed in order to make bunk bed safety more valuable to the parents buying the bunk bed. In the year 2000, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission mandated that all bunk bed manufacturers complied with these standards.
The Commission started ensuring that all beds were labeled properly in order to provide the name of the manufacturer, the model number and the mattress size. It was critical that the Commission did this to hold the manufacturer accountable for any problems that the bunk bed might have. This would create a process in which the buyer could call the manufacturer directly with their concerns, and the customer could understand firsthand how to correct the problem and get the proper parts and service to fix it. In many cases where the bunk bed has been purchased from a specialty store that features bunk beds, the store owner may have been trained directly by the manufacturer in order to help the customers directly by making a service call. Store owners that are trained in bunk bed safety, are usually more than happy to help you if they sold you the bunk bed. This is generally an added customer service benefit that store owners provide.
It was also required that all bunk beds had a warning label posted on the bed that advised against putting children that were less than six years old on the top bunk. Guardrails were placed on the beds as well to ensure that children wouldn’t roll out of the beds and onto the floor. With a bed that is taller than 30 inches, this is important in order to prevent injuries from these falls. The openings in between guardrails were important to regulate so that children would not be able to fit their head or limbs through the railing.
The best way to ensure bunk bed safety is to follow the directions that come with the bunk bed. Poor assembly of your bunk bed allows too much room for guardrails and other critical parts to disassemble themselves. Children often want to swing from the rails because in their minds they have rails to hang onto so swinging on them is similar to playing on a set of monkey bars. What children don’t realize is that if the bed is put together incorrectly, the guardrails could come apart. The rails can pull apart at the bolts or the rails could even snap or break, causing a child to tumble quickly to the hard floor. Children trust nearly everyone, and so they have no fear that the bunk bed wasn’t assembled properly.
It is also recommended that no one let their children sleep on the top level of the bunk bed if they are six years old or younger. As children get older they have established the ability to sleep more soundly, so they don’t wake up as frequently. Younger children that move around a lot will tend to roll and therefore it would be safer for them to sleep on the lower level bunk bed.
The proper size mattress is very important for bunk bed safety too. The mattress should always be a good firm mattress to support the spine, but buying a mattress that doesn’t fit isn’t safe for the structure of the bunk bed. A mattress that fits a little too tight may cause the railing to start to spread a little bit, especially if the bed is made from a soft wood like pine. A mattress that is a little too large is also hard on the slats and may cause them to bow over time.
Bunk bed safety is so important for your child, so make sure you read the instructions when putting your bunk bed together, and follow the advice of the manufacturer.