General Chat

i recently bought two display cabinets .They came with wall fixings and the recommendation in capital letters on the top of the leaflet supplied to fix them to the wall

my son in did it for me and leveled them up with wedges also supplied., I waited for him to do it before i put my collections in :-)

Cots were a hazard.

I had an old borrowed cot for my son and he fiddled with the nuts on one side enough to have it drop on the floor so at about 16 months he went into a bed.

A new one for daughter did not prevent her climbing over the top and greeting me with a grin one morning. At 13 months she went into a bed although I did lay pillows on the floor alongside it in order to make it a soft landing from a lower height for her.

My grandchildren are also climbers. :-0

Watch children like a hawk and they still find a way.

This is the thing, diyers want to add features and such to their homes in the easiest, quickest way and don't always think about children's safety.

My son climbed onto a small trolley to reach up to a wall cupboard and the cupboard came off the wall, luckily he wasn't hurt just scared. The cupboard was well fixed on to hold items but not sufficient to take the weight of a child pulling on it. You have to consider every possibility when installing anything these days, in the home or garden.

Lizx

My little nephews aged 2 and 3 used kitchen chairs to climb. The older one would help the little one from a chair onto the worktops and then tell him where the sweetie jar was kept and to fetch it. It was then opened and 1 sweet each was removed before it was put back again! They were only allowed one sweet each at a time so that's all they took. It was a while before my sister noticed the sweetie jar was emptying rather quickly. When the older nephew (main suspect!) was questioned, he was able to truthfully say it wasn't him that climbed on the worktops to get them.

I have also read where the large flatscreen tvs have been pulled over onto a toddler. A house is full of dangers but you wouldn't expect a stone fireplace to fall like that. I had one in my first married home and when it was built there were metal ties at intervals holding it to the wall.

I came across this thread while looking for something else and thought it was worth nudging.

Lots of people put firesurrounds in to make a focal point, hence the need to make sure they are properly and securely fixed.

Liz

Small children are stronger and a lot more ingenious than we give them credit for.

My younger son, like most toddlers, slept in a drop-side cot. At about 16 months old, when he stood on the mattress, the top of the side was at his shoulder height.

He'll be safe enough there, I thought, until the morning I went in and found him playing happily on the floor!!

Elder son, still tucked up in bed, thought it was a great joke, but was also old enough to tell me how on earth he had done it.

He had stood facing the side of the cot, lifted one leg until he could hook his big toe over the top of the cot side, wriggled a bit until both legs were up, swung round, put his feet down the outside on to the mattress and then dropped to the floor! :-0 :-)

As the bedroom was carpeted and son was well padded (old-fashioned nappies) he was unhurt. My problem - do I leave the cot side up, and have him doing that every day? or do I leave it down, so that he can get out more safely?

I chose the latter, as it wasn't low enough for him to fall out, and I learnt never to under-estimate the abilities of young children.

You mention items not fixed to walls, Rollo. I agree with you.

If you have adventurous, climbing-type of children (as mine were) they need to be watched as much as possible. More than forty years ago we had a tall free-standing set of drawers in my son's bedroom and at the age of 2 he used the handles as climbing supports and brought the set of solid wood drawers on top of himself. Luckily, the chest of drawers was tall and positioned facing the bottom of the bed. When I reached his bedroom he was lying in the triangle that had been formed when the chest fell and only had one drawer partly on him. He escaped unscathed.

I had only been in the loo along the landing so that's how easily and quickly things can happen.

Children, like adults, can't be watched every minute. It is only by God's grace that some of us are alive today.

I feel heartily sorry for some parents when dreadful things happen and would recommend making sure that all items are fixed securely to walls as Rollo mentioned.

then there are the thousands of Ikea MALM cupboards installed without connecting the cupboard to the wall. Several kids were crushed. Then the same again from IKEA with BEBO shelving - this time kids and adults crushed by descemdomg book stores ... not IKEA's fault, careless diy.

Then you have walls in the street collapsing onto kids with fatal results, falling tree branches which budget aware councils ignore. Badly fitted doors are a new one on me.

A long long time ago I was myself crushed by a stone fireplace - a truck didn't make it around the corner on a steep hill and whizzed through the wall. I suippose I should be glad that the (properly fitted) stone fireplace took much of the force I still ended up with scars which I have to this day.

Children play a game of chance ever close to the line created by careless adults. Falling fireplaces are the least of their problems esp as few modern houses have such fittings.

The same applies to patio/French doors.

Several years ago, in a nearby village, the whole kit and caboodle fell out as the child got hold of it while going through. I think the frame had not been fixed in place securely enough.

Couldn't open that Liz but your message is clear. Poor little girl. Will check ours but I think it is secure.

Just to remind people

Can I please suggest to everyone who knows a person with a stone or other heavy fire surround to make sure it is safely fixed to the wall after this tragedy happened recently in my home parish.

This beautiful beloved child has lost her life, her family are distraught and all who knew her shocked and heartbroken.


There was a similar accident a while back at our local Laura Ashley store where a fire surround fell down, it wasn't properly fixed, and it badly injured a small child.

Lizx


http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/news/video_candle
_lit_at_lakenham_church
in_memory_of_toddler_killed_after_stone_fire_
surround_fell_on_her_1_3675935