Decatur Mom

A local news reporter is looking for parents willing to share their experiences with bunk bed injuries (on camera) as a follow up to a recent Pediatric study which reported that thousands of children are treated each year for bunk bed injuries. Please contact J Shu at jshu@bellsouth.net if you are interested in being interviewed.

J Shu writes:

Bunk bed injuries send thousands to EMERGENCY ROOM
Every year, an average of 35,790 children suffer non-fatal injuries related to bunk beds, according to an examination of 16 years of injury surveillance data. The study, Bunk Bed-Related Injuries Among Children and Adolescents Treated in Emergency Departments in the United States, 1990-2005, found a total of 572,580 children and adolescents 21 years and younger were treated in emergency rooms for bunk bed-related injuries. Children younger than 6 suffered the majority of injuries, with significant injury rates also seen among college-aged students. Roughly 60 percent of the injuries occurred in males. Lacerations were the most common type of injury (29.6 percent) followed by contusions and abrasions (24 percent) and fractures (19.9 percent). Roughly 72 percent of the injuries were caused by falls. Over a quarter of the injuries were to the head and neck. In an estimated 2.9 percent of cases, the patient was hospitalized, transferred to another hospital or held for additional observation. The authors suggest increased efforts are needed to prevent bunk-bed injuries among children, adolescents and young adults.

Read the full Pediatric article

After reading the article, I have reconsidered getting a bunk bed all together. I had intended to buy a bunk bed soon because my baby boy’s room worked fine as a nursery and is now OK with his toddler bed but will become too small to be functional when it’s time for a big boy bed. So, I thought that I would bunk the kids together in my older child’s bedroom and leave the small room for some much-needed play space. After all, today’s bunk beds look a lot safer than the bunk beds that I slept in. I don’t remember having all of those rails to keep me from falling out. However, if the extra space the bunk bed allows will come with extra trips to the emergency room…we’ll have to squeeze our son’s space to maximum capacity and the living room will have to continue to hold all things toddler for a few more years.