About Meghan's Hope and our Mission
Meghan’s Hope was born out of both love and grief. My goal was simple, to prevent any other child from dying the way my beautiful Meggie did. She suffocated under the weight of her dresser just one week before Christmas, while the rest of our family slept. Her death was preventable, if only we knew the danger that lurked in her room.
It has grown from a simple one page website, to a world-wide go-to resource on tip-over prevention and safety, particularly through social media. You can find us at the Meghan's Hope Facebook Page, and on Twitter @MeghansHope
About Kimberly (Meghan's mom)
Kimberly has channeled her love and her grief into educating others in the hopes no other family ever know her pain. She has been interviewed by numerous local and national TV and print media outlets, presents locally and nationally on the subject of tip-overs, and is considered a thought leader when it comes to advocacy and tip-over awareness and prevention. Contact her to speak to you or your group, or to present at a conference today!
Kimberly is also a founding member of Parents Against Tip-Overs, a CPSC Anchor It! community leader and Anchor it mom in their PSA "Real Moms Urge You to Anchor it!", and is a vocal advocate for tip-over prevention and for a mandatory and stronger furniture safety standard. She is a voting member of ASTM's subcommittee on furniture safety, and Meghan's Hope is also a member of the International Association for Child Safety.
Kimberly's blog post Be With Me. Just for Today, went viral around the world and in a matter of weeks, and had compelled tens of thousands of parents to secure their furniture. It's been seen by nearly 3 million people, and many of whom have written to personally to thank me for sharing because it compelled them to anchor their furniture and they later found their child climbing a dresser or having one fall, but because it was properly anchored, their child was not injured. THAT is Meghan's Hope. That's why I ask you to "listen to Meggie!"
The Statistics
Thus far, the numbers of small children injured and killed by furniture and television tip-over is only climbing. About every 24 minutes, someone, usually a young child, is injured when a piece of furniture, a TV, or an appliance falls on them. Every hour a child is rushed to the ER because of a furniture tip-over alone. A child dies on average every 2 weeks. The children that survive these accidents may be left with severe and debilitating lifelong injuries. ALL of them can be prevented. You can read the most recent statistics in the 2020 CPSC Tip-Over report.
It's important to note these numbers are estimates only as they only reflect tip-overs that were reported to the CPSC. It's likely thousands more happen every year that are not known about by the CPSC. If you've had a tip-over incident, even if no one was hurt, please make a report to the CPSC so they can accurately track what is tipping (the more specific the information the better) and how often.
Has your child been involved in a tip-over, even if they were not hurt? Please report the incident to the CPSC at Saferproducts.gov It's quick and easy and you could prevent a future injury or death with your report!
Our Mission
Our mission is simple. To educate the public about the very real danger that a child can be severely injured or killed by falling furniture, televisions, and appliances and that it happens in an instant. No one EVER expects "it" will happen to their child. I'm here to tell you "it" CAN happen to your child. You can be in the same room and be powerless to protect your child from a tip-over. Small pieces of furniture and very heavy pieces of furniture all pose risks. The dresser that killed Meghan is pictured above. Surprised? She weight 28 pounds. It weighs about 150 pounds. Technically, it would be compliant with today's voluntary safety standard based on height, yet it still tipped over and killed her.
You could be the best, most safety conscious parent ever, but if your furniture and TV's are not secured, they could be deadly. Never, ever, assume "it" can't happen to you. No parent is truly watching their child 24/7. Meghan died while we were all sleeping. Parents have been in the same room when a TV or dresser fell on their child and simply couldn't stop it from happening. Need proof? This PSA by the CPSC, "Even while you're watching", features actual real-life tip-over footage captured on nanny cam or cell phone and shows not only how fast a tip-over can happen, but that you can literally be in the same room and be powerless to stop it from happening.
Awareness, education, and prevention (properly anchoring furniture to the wall and requiring manufacturers to make inherently stable furniture able to withstand a child opening multiple drawers and climbing) is what saves lives. That is what Meghan's Hope is all about. We need your help to spread the word!
We want to reach everyone who knows, cares for, teaches, or works with children. We want them to take the time to become educated about this danger in everyone's home, then take the few minutes and spend the few dollars that could very well save the life of a child they love and care for.
We want to educate parents, grandparents, childcare providers, teachers, childbirth educators, CPR and First Aid instructors, nurses, doctors, social workers, counselors, hotel owners, those who run church halls where scouting, religious education, and child centered events happen, hotels and any public space where furniture and TV's are unsecured.
We need the help of those who work in retail and sell childproofing supplies, furniture, and televisions, and are otherwise in a position to educate are our target audience to help us prevent tip-overs. We need them to display furniture secured properly and post information about the danger of tip-over and how to prevent it. They need to sell anchors everywhere, not just online. Those who make the laws and set the safety standards of manufacturing for furniture, TV's, and appliances are also in our sight. They know how to make safer furniture, some choose not to do it. It's everyone's job to protect our children! Our kids deserve it. We need to demand it.
The Problems with Protecting Children from Tip-Overs
How do we change that, protect our kids, stop tip-overs, and save lives?
I now sit on that ASTM furniture safety committee as a voting member, and I, along with other tip-over parents, are fighting for a stronger, mandatory, furniture safety standard. The STURDY Act would make this a reality!
Until the manufacturers are willing to lay their own head, or a small child they love in front of their furniture and test it under the current conditions (weaker than these) or these conditions, confident it will not tip, the standard is not strong enough! Right now, no one in the industry is willing to take that chance.
This article by Consumer Reports highlights the results of their own testing, what dressers passed and which ones failed, and why a stronger standard is needed.
We want to see furniture safety straps sold EVERYWHERE baby/child supplies are sold, right next to the outlet covers. We’d also like to see them sold at stores where furniture and televisions are sold along with information about why you’d want to purchase them. Consumer demand drives this. We need your help! We also want those TV and Furniture straps weight tested for safety, and those weight limits clearly stated on package labels. Right now, there is no way to tell how much weight furniture anchors will hold, and they may be giving parents a false sense of security and inadequately preventing a tip-over.
The history of the quest for a furniture safety standard: ASTM, the CPSC, and Congress
The ASTM subcommittee on furniture safety was formed in 2002. Very little about the voluntary standard that existed the year Meghan died in 2004, has changed today. That is irresponsible, not to mention flabbergasting.
We have had two bills, both titled The Katie Elise and Meghan Agnes Act introduced to the US House of Representatives. One in 2005 and one in 2007. Although they had bipartisan support, they never made it out of committee in either session of Congress. They did get the attention of the CPSC and the Consumer Union, and I presume, ASTM. There have been several petitions in an attempt to get the issue before Congress again, The STURDY Act was first introduced in 2016 and again in 2019, and while it passed the House in 2019 by voice vote, it died in committee because of the bitter bipartisanship on the Hill. New versions of the STURDY Act (HR1314) and S441 were introduced to the U.S. House and Senate in February of 2021, and has the full support of the American Academy of Pediatrics, KIDs In Danger, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, Public Citizen, and Parents Against Tip-Overs. Read more about it in the Meghan's Hope Safety Blog.
Our focus has shifted directly to the manufacturers and the ASTM sub-committee on furniture safety, the CPSC, and those who sell furniture and restraining devices. We have not ruled out asking Congress for help again with forcing a mandatory standard, however.
The CPSC and ASTM have taken notice as a result of our efforts, and with the help of the media, and recently, Consumer Reports and their independent studies and furniture testing, have brought these dangers to light by writing and airing stories about their tragic deaths. I encourage you to read their articles about furniture tip-overs and furniture anchor concerns.
Our voices are being heard, but change is painfully slow. The voluntary standard is a step in the right direction, and some manufacturers are following it and even going above and beyond, but they are small in number. Many more in the industry are resistant to a stronger standard, and I can only assume it is for selfish and financial gain.
Today, as part of the voluntary standard, certain types of 'storage' furniture is now sold with a restraining device, but those devices are not tested nor are they usually sufficient to safely secure the furniture to the wall. This gives parents a false sense of security and puts the manufacturer at a liability risk, that they seem more than willing to take. A lawsuit is more palatable to them than saving the life of a child it would seem. They constantly claim they need more data, more testing, more task groups. Our children are their data. Are 30,000 injuries and deaths a year not enough? How many will be enough?
We want them to do it right and to do it now. While I am thrilled that there are now limited voluntary standards, there are no mandatory standards. And 84 children every single day are injured or killed as a result of their stalling on progress toward an effective standard. We can do better. We have to do better! We will not stop until they actually do better.
In the meantime, Anchor It!
Until there is a mandatory furniture safety standard that is sufficient to protect children from tip-over injuries and deaths, consumers must properly anchor all furniture to the wall. You can do this with many different types of anchors. Please refer to our resource page to learn more. We know only 27% of Americans have anchored even just one piece of furniture in their home. We know that anchoring is not the long term solution, but it's the only way we can prevent tip-overs of furniture already in your home. In the future, furniture must be required to be made more stable and able to withstand the forces of a child interacting with and climbing on a dresser to prevent tip-overs from happening.
I am honored to be partnering with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission on their Anchor it and Protect a Child campaign on tip-over awareness. Please visit and share this valuable resource with anyone who does not have their TV's and furniture secured, or know of the dangers, and point them toward our site so they can learn to make their homes and the children they love safer.
Supporting other grieving parents
Meghan's death and the journey that is Meghan's Hope has inspired Kimberly to help others through their grief. Kimberly also recently published a book for bereaved parents and those who support and care for them on coping with the loss of a child called Out of the Darkness: Coping with and Recovering From the Death of a Child. It is available on Amazon.com.
If you wish to learn more, request an interview, invite Kimberly to speak at your event, or help us in our mission please contact us today!
It has grown from a simple one page website, to a world-wide go-to resource on tip-over prevention and safety, particularly through social media. You can find us at the Meghan's Hope Facebook Page, and on Twitter @MeghansHope
About Kimberly (Meghan's mom)
Kimberly has channeled her love and her grief into educating others in the hopes no other family ever know her pain. She has been interviewed by numerous local and national TV and print media outlets, presents locally and nationally on the subject of tip-overs, and is considered a thought leader when it comes to advocacy and tip-over awareness and prevention. Contact her to speak to you or your group, or to present at a conference today!
Kimberly is also a founding member of Parents Against Tip-Overs, a CPSC Anchor It! community leader and Anchor it mom in their PSA "Real Moms Urge You to Anchor it!", and is a vocal advocate for tip-over prevention and for a mandatory and stronger furniture safety standard. She is a voting member of ASTM's subcommittee on furniture safety, and Meghan's Hope is also a member of the International Association for Child Safety.
Kimberly's blog post Be With Me. Just for Today, went viral around the world and in a matter of weeks, and had compelled tens of thousands of parents to secure their furniture. It's been seen by nearly 3 million people, and many of whom have written to personally to thank me for sharing because it compelled them to anchor their furniture and they later found their child climbing a dresser or having one fall, but because it was properly anchored, their child was not injured. THAT is Meghan's Hope. That's why I ask you to "listen to Meggie!"
The Statistics
Thus far, the numbers of small children injured and killed by furniture and television tip-over is only climbing. About every 24 minutes, someone, usually a young child, is injured when a piece of furniture, a TV, or an appliance falls on them. Every hour a child is rushed to the ER because of a furniture tip-over alone. A child dies on average every 2 weeks. The children that survive these accidents may be left with severe and debilitating lifelong injuries. ALL of them can be prevented. You can read the most recent statistics in the 2020 CPSC Tip-Over report.
It's important to note these numbers are estimates only as they only reflect tip-overs that were reported to the CPSC. It's likely thousands more happen every year that are not known about by the CPSC. If you've had a tip-over incident, even if no one was hurt, please make a report to the CPSC so they can accurately track what is tipping (the more specific the information the better) and how often.
Has your child been involved in a tip-over, even if they were not hurt? Please report the incident to the CPSC at Saferproducts.gov It's quick and easy and you could prevent a future injury or death with your report!
Our Mission
Our mission is simple. To educate the public about the very real danger that a child can be severely injured or killed by falling furniture, televisions, and appliances and that it happens in an instant. No one EVER expects "it" will happen to their child. I'm here to tell you "it" CAN happen to your child. You can be in the same room and be powerless to protect your child from a tip-over. Small pieces of furniture and very heavy pieces of furniture all pose risks. The dresser that killed Meghan is pictured above. Surprised? She weight 28 pounds. It weighs about 150 pounds. Technically, it would be compliant with today's voluntary safety standard based on height, yet it still tipped over and killed her.
You could be the best, most safety conscious parent ever, but if your furniture and TV's are not secured, they could be deadly. Never, ever, assume "it" can't happen to you. No parent is truly watching their child 24/7. Meghan died while we were all sleeping. Parents have been in the same room when a TV or dresser fell on their child and simply couldn't stop it from happening. Need proof? This PSA by the CPSC, "Even while you're watching", features actual real-life tip-over footage captured on nanny cam or cell phone and shows not only how fast a tip-over can happen, but that you can literally be in the same room and be powerless to stop it from happening.
Awareness, education, and prevention (properly anchoring furniture to the wall and requiring manufacturers to make inherently stable furniture able to withstand a child opening multiple drawers and climbing) is what saves lives. That is what Meghan's Hope is all about. We need your help to spread the word!
We want to reach everyone who knows, cares for, teaches, or works with children. We want them to take the time to become educated about this danger in everyone's home, then take the few minutes and spend the few dollars that could very well save the life of a child they love and care for.
We want to educate parents, grandparents, childcare providers, teachers, childbirth educators, CPR and First Aid instructors, nurses, doctors, social workers, counselors, hotel owners, those who run church halls where scouting, religious education, and child centered events happen, hotels and any public space where furniture and TV's are unsecured.
We need the help of those who work in retail and sell childproofing supplies, furniture, and televisions, and are otherwise in a position to educate are our target audience to help us prevent tip-overs. We need them to display furniture secured properly and post information about the danger of tip-over and how to prevent it. They need to sell anchors everywhere, not just online. Those who make the laws and set the safety standards of manufacturing for furniture, TV's, and appliances are also in our sight. They know how to make safer furniture, some choose not to do it. It's everyone's job to protect our children! Our kids deserve it. We need to demand it.
The Problems with Protecting Children from Tip-Overs
- People are not aware of the very real danger unsecured furniture poses, especially to young children
- If people are aware, they often convince themselves that these tip-over injuries and deaths only happen to "bad" parents or those with "cheap" furniture. They don't believe it can happen to them. They make excuses like their kids don't climb, or they are always with them. Both impossibilities to guarantee. I remind them Meghan died while the rest of us were asleep.
- Furniture anchors are not easy to find in your local hardware or big box stores like Target or Wal-Mart, and if you don't see them with other childproofing supplies, you are not likely to know they exist, let alone why you should use them.
- There are no mandatory testing standards for furniture anchors, and many different options that are available, so the consumer does not know how much weight an anchor will hold.
- There are no mandatory furniture manufacturing safety standards, which means you have no idea of knowing what furniture is safe from tipping and under what circumstances it might tip-over. Therefore, you must assume ALL furniture can tip-over and injure or kill a child and you must properly secure it to the wall.
- Even if anchors are purchased, most people don't know how, or have the tools to properly install them, which can lead to them not being used, or being improperly installed, leading to a false sense of security.
- Right now there is only a voluntary furniture safety standard and it's not strong enough to protect children. It's also only voluntary, so many manufacturers simply don't follow it. Some members of the furniture industry are engaging in delay tactics and excuses, resulting in very little progress or meaningful and effective change to the standard in the past several years.
- The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has limited authority to force a recall of furniture that is proven to be unstable and at risk for tip-over. The process can be time consuming before a recall is announced, and in the meantime, children could be seriously injured or die.
- The furniture industry at large (not every manufacturer, but many) seem willing to chance lawsuits should a child die when their furniture falls on them, rather than make the effort to make their furniture compliant with the safety standard and pass the relatively little added expense of making a safer product on to the consumer.
- Because the current voluntary furniture safety standard only covers "clothing storage units" (dressers, wardrobes, or other furniture marketed as or used as as unit where you would store clothes) 30 inches and above, and only those that would tip when a 50 lb weight is gently placed on the middle front of an open drawer (not at all the way children interact with furniture), and only covers new furniture, there are millions and millions of pieces of furniture in homes vulnerable to tipping. The ONLY way to protect children from a tip-over is to properly anchor the furniture to the wall.
How do we change that, protect our kids, stop tip-overs, and save lives?
- We become unified, vocal, and persistent in our advocacy and demands for safer furniture and spreading the anchoring message. Not sure how to anchor? Visit www.anchorit.gov to learn why and how.
- We ask for your help, to share the message and as consumers, to demand anchors be available everywhere other childproofing supplies are and to demand furniture be made more stable and thus safer, by the manufacturer.
- We ask for the media's help, to share the message.
- We ask for the help of our lawmakers at every level, to pressure the furniture industry to move forward toward a strong, effective, mandatory safety standard that actually protects kids from tip-over injuries and deaths.
- We work with the CPSC to move quickly toward a mandatory standard as well, and to grant them the power (and for them to use it) to recall furniture that is not compliant with the current standard BEFORE any child suffers a debilitating injury or dies as a result.
- Read CPSC Chairwoman Ann Marie Buerkle's remarks on tip-overs in an address she gave at the International Consumer Product Health and Safety Organization's Symposium in 2019 February 27, 2019
- Read CPSC Commissioner Elliot Kaye and Robert Adler's statement on Tip-Overs and their proposed amendment that would have added a Notice of Proposed Rulemaking regarding tip-overs to the FY 2020 Budget for the CPSC, that was defeated 3:2 by the Commission. All 3 Republican members voted against it. It was published March 30th, 2019
I now sit on that ASTM furniture safety committee as a voting member, and I, along with other tip-over parents, are fighting for a stronger, mandatory, furniture safety standard. The STURDY Act would make this a reality!
- We want to see a standard that includes all furniture be sold with warning labels stating that it poses a risk of injury or death due to tip over.
- We also demand to see all storage furniture, no matter the height, are sold with a tethering device appropriate to hold the weight of that piece, fully loaded + 60 lbs, and directions on how to properly and safely secure it to the wall.
- We want to see real world testing incorporated into the safety standard - testing on carpet (or a simulated surface to mimic the degree to which carpet impacts how a piece of furniture sits and is displaced)
- We want to see dynamic weight testing (not carefully placed weights only on an open top drawer). Kids don't leap into the top drawer, they open lower drawers first very often and climb, or reach and pull, their actions are not static and slow.
- We want to see the test weight used to be equivalent to the weight of a 5-year old (approximately 60 pounds), to simulate how children actually interact with furniture, as that will be the best way to protect them. We want this testing to happen with ALL Drawers open.
Until the manufacturers are willing to lay their own head, or a small child they love in front of their furniture and test it under the current conditions (weaker than these) or these conditions, confident it will not tip, the standard is not strong enough! Right now, no one in the industry is willing to take that chance.
This article by Consumer Reports highlights the results of their own testing, what dressers passed and which ones failed, and why a stronger standard is needed.
We want to see furniture safety straps sold EVERYWHERE baby/child supplies are sold, right next to the outlet covers. We’d also like to see them sold at stores where furniture and televisions are sold along with information about why you’d want to purchase them. Consumer demand drives this. We need your help! We also want those TV and Furniture straps weight tested for safety, and those weight limits clearly stated on package labels. Right now, there is no way to tell how much weight furniture anchors will hold, and they may be giving parents a false sense of security and inadequately preventing a tip-over.
The history of the quest for a furniture safety standard: ASTM, the CPSC, and Congress
The ASTM subcommittee on furniture safety was formed in 2002. Very little about the voluntary standard that existed the year Meghan died in 2004, has changed today. That is irresponsible, not to mention flabbergasting.
We have had two bills, both titled The Katie Elise and Meghan Agnes Act introduced to the US House of Representatives. One in 2005 and one in 2007. Although they had bipartisan support, they never made it out of committee in either session of Congress. They did get the attention of the CPSC and the Consumer Union, and I presume, ASTM. There have been several petitions in an attempt to get the issue before Congress again, The STURDY Act was first introduced in 2016 and again in 2019, and while it passed the House in 2019 by voice vote, it died in committee because of the bitter bipartisanship on the Hill. New versions of the STURDY Act (HR1314) and S441 were introduced to the U.S. House and Senate in February of 2021, and has the full support of the American Academy of Pediatrics, KIDs In Danger, the Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, Public Citizen, and Parents Against Tip-Overs. Read more about it in the Meghan's Hope Safety Blog.
Our focus has shifted directly to the manufacturers and the ASTM sub-committee on furniture safety, the CPSC, and those who sell furniture and restraining devices. We have not ruled out asking Congress for help again with forcing a mandatory standard, however.
The CPSC and ASTM have taken notice as a result of our efforts, and with the help of the media, and recently, Consumer Reports and their independent studies and furniture testing, have brought these dangers to light by writing and airing stories about their tragic deaths. I encourage you to read their articles about furniture tip-overs and furniture anchor concerns.
Our voices are being heard, but change is painfully slow. The voluntary standard is a step in the right direction, and some manufacturers are following it and even going above and beyond, but they are small in number. Many more in the industry are resistant to a stronger standard, and I can only assume it is for selfish and financial gain.
Today, as part of the voluntary standard, certain types of 'storage' furniture is now sold with a restraining device, but those devices are not tested nor are they usually sufficient to safely secure the furniture to the wall. This gives parents a false sense of security and puts the manufacturer at a liability risk, that they seem more than willing to take. A lawsuit is more palatable to them than saving the life of a child it would seem. They constantly claim they need more data, more testing, more task groups. Our children are their data. Are 30,000 injuries and deaths a year not enough? How many will be enough?
We want them to do it right and to do it now. While I am thrilled that there are now limited voluntary standards, there are no mandatory standards. And 84 children every single day are injured or killed as a result of their stalling on progress toward an effective standard. We can do better. We have to do better! We will not stop until they actually do better.
In the meantime, Anchor It!
Until there is a mandatory furniture safety standard that is sufficient to protect children from tip-over injuries and deaths, consumers must properly anchor all furniture to the wall. You can do this with many different types of anchors. Please refer to our resource page to learn more. We know only 27% of Americans have anchored even just one piece of furniture in their home. We know that anchoring is not the long term solution, but it's the only way we can prevent tip-overs of furniture already in your home. In the future, furniture must be required to be made more stable and able to withstand the forces of a child interacting with and climbing on a dresser to prevent tip-overs from happening.
I am honored to be partnering with the US Consumer Product Safety Commission on their Anchor it and Protect a Child campaign on tip-over awareness. Please visit and share this valuable resource with anyone who does not have their TV's and furniture secured, or know of the dangers, and point them toward our site so they can learn to make their homes and the children they love safer.
Supporting other grieving parents
Meghan's death and the journey that is Meghan's Hope has inspired Kimberly to help others through their grief. Kimberly also recently published a book for bereaved parents and those who support and care for them on coping with the loss of a child called Out of the Darkness: Coping with and Recovering From the Death of a Child. It is available on Amazon.com.
If you wish to learn more, request an interview, invite Kimberly to speak at your event, or help us in our mission please contact us today!
