Recently, there was a case reported by Westchester County, about a death of a four-year-old child, caused by a 32-inch tube television (the older, bulkier type of TV) when it fell off of a dresser. There were no charges filed (yet) but negligence could be assumed by the parents. This is a wake up call for all parents (including myself), that we need to take care of baby-proofing our homes and making sure large items and appliances, like TVs, can’t be tipped over easily.

There’s many ways to prevent this, and we’ll also offer a PDF link at the bottom of this post that will give you some more tips on how to prevent this type of accident from happening. But in regards to television sets (or any large item/appliance) – it’s extremely dangerous to be place them up high, where it could be knocked over and possibly harm your child. One idea to prevent this from happening is to utilize wall brackets for TVs – so that they can’t be moved or tipped over. There are also baby proofing cables and other similar products that will connect to your TV (or chair, stool, or any large item) to prevent it from falling down or moved. You should also make sure there are no cords accessible to children. They can be a strangulation hazard, as well as an electrical danger, but they can also be tugged and the TV could be yanked out of place or topple over.

It’s not easy to think of everything that a child might do or be interested in, so you just have to do your best when making your home safe. Consumer Reports’ Blog has a post that goes into more detail about the TV tipover dangers. You can read their post here.

Here’s an interesting video from the Consumer Reports blog post.

The PDF I mentioned is here. You can print it out too. I hope information and tips like these are helpful. Feel free to offer any suggestions in the comments or you can contact us here.