Then it happened to me...
I have never been a safety obsessed parent. I care about my child's safety and make sure we don't put her in harms way, but I tend to not sweat the small stuff. It seems like almost every day if not every hour there is some new parenting rule about how to do it the right way, safest way or best way. Sometimes I wonder how we all survived before ALL these rules came into play... Anyways, here is my story and word of caution to parents about furniture and tip hazards.
Yesterday, I was getting ready in my bathroom about 3 feet away from my daughter when it happened... Our relatively new Ikea dresser tipped over top heavy on my two year old daughter!!!!!!!
It was not your classic unattended child story, she simply walked up the the dresser pulled out a drawer then another. As I heard something slide off the top I turned to see the dresser crashing down on my baby. Without hesitation I grabbed the dresser, but it was to late. The drawers came crashing down on her. As she screamed and cried I carefully got her out form under the mess. Her arms were red and puffy and the left side of her face already swollen and turing black and blue.
I was terrified but level headed, I quickly asked her to move the areas the seemed injured and to my relief it seemed like other then some serious bruising and dresser PTSD she was ok. OMG! I was shaking but keeping it together for her, I didn't want her to see I was just as scared. After a few minutes passed we both calmed down sat on the bed and called Daddy to make sure we did not over react and call 911 to take her to the emergency room. She was ok, shaken but nothing broken.
After this happened I started to google Ikea tip over stories and found that some families were not so lucky. Grateful for our relatively happy ending I am terrified of the what ifs... what if I was not there to help her...what if it hit her head just right... ugh.
After reading up on it I found that IKEA (Orlando) should have offered us straps and did not! I am angry and annoyed that they do not do more to assure the safety of their customers and their children at the store level. Of course their corporate office promotes safety but WHY did no one in the store offer us the secure straps as we check out with out two year old in tow?
The top heavy design became apparent to me a few times when using it myself... but I NEVER thought it would completely tip over by just having two drawers open at the same time.
For those of you who shop at Ikea PLEASE make sure to secure your furniture. This is a link to the dresser we have that is still for sale and should be recalled.
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/20318601/
#scaredmamma
#ikeatipover
xo,
Laurie