Your Child's Health/Family Life/Brown Bagging in Style

Making Sure Bunk Beds Meet Safety Rules. New standards aim to prevent tragedies

Illustration of children sleeping in bunk beds

o you breathe a sigh of relief after you tuck your child into bed at night? If your child sleeps in a bunk bed, your sense of security could be a false one.

Each year, thousands of children visit emergency rooms for injuries linked to bunk beds. Most of the injuries are minor, caused by horseplay. Experts blame the potentially dangerous injuries on the beds’ structure. According to U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reports, children have died (often from strangulation) after being trapped in bunk beds.

“About 10 children die every year from bunk bed injuries,” says Patti Rhynders, manager of injury prevention education and outreach at Children’s Medical Center of Dallas. “Most of the children who die are younger than 6.”

In January 2000, the CPSC mandated a safety standard for bunk beds. The standard aims to prevent injury or death to children who become trapped in the beds’ structure or wedged between the bed and the wall. CPSC rules require bunk beds made for sale in the United States or imported since June 2000 to meet the new safety requirements. The new requirements include, among other things, that any bed in which the bottom of the foundation is more than 30 inches from the floor must have guardrails on both sides and that the side rail along the wall must be continuous.

Don’t allow children younger than 6 to use the upper bunk.
Use guardrails on both sides of the upper bunks.
Always use a ladder for entering or leaving the upper bunk.
If the bunk bed is against the wall, and only has one guardrail, place the guardrail against the wall to prevent entrapment between the bed and the wall.
Make sure the openings in the upper bunk structure are small enough (less than 3 1/2 inches) to prevent passage of a child’s torso.
Make sure the openings at the ends of the lower bunk are either small enough to prevent a child’s torso and head from passing through or large enough for the child’s entire torso and head to pass through the space. Many children are injured when the torso fits through the opening, but the head does not, resulting in the child’s hanging or strangulation.