Near to you

Opinions

Every year thousands of children get treatment for injuries associated with bunk beds. Scottish researchers at the Royal Aberdeen Children’s Hospital found out that 85% of the injuries were caused by children falling out of bed while asleep. Dr Diana Macgregor who carried out the research said children move around more in their sleep than adults. She suggests that it is important to have safety rails on both sides and a ladder securely fastened to the bed. (BBC News Bunk bed injury warning).

Consumer Product Safety Commission published a report with bunk bed safety tips.  

Safety Tips

-         Follow instructions carefully when assembling a new bunk bed.

-         Follow all guidelines for guardrail height and spacing between frame and rails.

-         Always use guard rails on both sides.

-         Allow only children six years or older to sleep on upper bunks.

-         Make sure that the ladder is amply wide and permanently attached to the frame.

-         Use only properly-sized, manufacturer recommended mattresses.

-         Make sure there are no openings wide enough for a child’s head to pass through.

-         Prohibit more than one person on the upper bunk.

-         Prohibit horseplay on or under the beds.

-         Discuss safety concerns and the proper usage of bunk beds with your children.

Safety Standard

A new mandatory standard for bunk beds is expected to improve safety for the hundreds of thousands of children who use them. Since mid-2000, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission requires all bunk beds sold in U.S. to comply with the standards:

      -   Every bunk bed must have an affixed label that states the bed’s manufacturer,    model, and mattress size information.

      -   Every bunk bed must have a warning label that advises against placing children under six years of age in the upper bunk.

      -   If the bunk bed is taller than 30 inches, it must have a continuous guardrail on the wall side of bed.

      -   Openings on the upper and the lower bunks must be small enough that a child’s head, torso or limb cannot pass through them.

Back to start page

"It is a scandal how many children have an accident while using a conventional bunk bed, just because most manufacturers fail to attach high enough safety bars to their beds."

This is the opinion of an increasing majority of parents who through the media and also through some organisations especially the doctors professional association of North Rhine in Germany, have become aware of this problematic issue. Therefore the classic adventure bed with stable safety bars is a must have for many families and they will not do without this practical and child friendly piece of furniture for reasons of the educational and safety advantages which it provides.

The Swiss advice centre for accident prevention concludes as a result of lengthy study of over 7,000 participants who have had accidents, that in the case of small children, 1 in every 20 accidents involving a piece of furniture was caused by conventional bunk beds. In Switzerland alone over 750 children per year aged 1-8 have been injured in an accident with a conventional bunk bed. In more than a half of the cases this resulted in a head injury. However a high enough fall prevention method e.g. safety bars or railings would have reduced the chance of a standing child falling. The typical bunk bed accident often takes place because the child is standing on the upper bunk and is then pushed by one of their fellow playmates. This then leads to them falling head first over the edge of the "far to low" European norm safety bars. Therefore WOODLAND exclusively use safety bars which are 70 cm high (more than double the European norm), then when the child has reached an appropriate age this can be reduced by half by fixing the mattress beam to a higher assembly hole. It is practical here that you make the standing height under the sleeping level 30 cm higher, which will then create additional freedom to move if an adjustable desk is in use.

Back to start page