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Oct 14, 2024

College Parents Want To Buy Kiddie Safety Rails For Kids' Dorm Beds | YourTango

Written on Sep 19, 2024 Before sending their kids off to college, many parents strive to provide everything they need to survive the transition into their new life. Usually, that involves lots of

Written on Sep 19, 2024

Before sending their kids off to college, many parents strive to provide everything they need to survive the transition into their new life. Usually, that involves lots of snacks, cold medicines, cleaning supplies, and even hangover remedies to get them through their very first semester.

However, most parents would not consider children's bed rails to be a college necessity.

Yet, some parents believe that bed rails are crucial to the safety of their kids while they are away at school.

Kelly, a college mom herself, often skims through college parent Facebook groups, entertaining herself with the outrageous questions and comments made by fellow parents. A recent post she saw was about kiddie bed rails.

"Can anyone recommend a good rail for side of bed?" the anonymous parent asked. "They all look so small to me."

Tr1sha | Shutterstock

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Usually, these railings are installed to the side of children’s beds to ease the transition from cribs. They prevent kids from rolling off their beds and injuring themselves as they adjust to sleeping without crib bars to protect them.

While parents of toddlers could certainly benefit from them, most parents of college students likely wouldn’t consider guard rails to be a freshman-year necessity. Yet, for some parents, their college-aged children falling out of bed is a major concern.

Kelly is not such a parent and was shocked to see this question being posed in a college parents' Facebook group.

“I didn’t know this was an issue with adults,” Kelly said. "Is that a real concern? That they're gonna fall out of bed?"

While she acknowledged that college students are bound to experience a “wild night out” and may fall off the bed as a result, she insisted that the average 18-year-old shouldn’t require bed rails to stay in their bed.

Still, she added that this was not a one-off post that she came across but rather a topic that was discussed in several different Facebook groups.

“Bunk beds in college often don’t come with rails. Kids falling out is actually a huge issue — lots of [traumatic brain injuries] TBIs and fractures,” one TikTok user pointed out.

“This one is valid. I rolled off of my lofted bed and got a concussion," another commenter shared. "There wasn’t a place for me to buy a bed rail on campus, so my mom got them for me and my roommate."

"Falling off a normal bed is nothing and hardly happens. Falling from a lofted bed that is 5 ft off the ground to a concrete floor is deadly and happens," a third user wrote.

Apparently, college students accidentally falling off their lofted beds is more common than we may think.

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According to a 2018 study, reported on by Campus Safety, an estimated 71,000 patients between the ages of 4 and 21 are treated each year in emergency rooms for bunk and loft bed injuries.

Young adults between the ages of 18 and 21 — the most common age of college students — are twice as likely to experience bed-related injuries than people ages 13 to 16, with falls being the cause of the injury 75% of the time.

Georgia Tech alum Clark Jacobs was one of the individuals subjected to these types of injuries, according to Campus Safety. In 2015, he tumbled out of his seven-foot lofted bed in his sleep, fracturing his skull. He suffered a stroke and a brain bleed and spent three months in a coma.

While he was, thankfully, able to return to school two years after the accident and finish his education, other students are not as lucky.

In November 2019, San Diego State University student Dylan Hernandez fell out of his bunk bed and passed away after hitting his head. An autopsy concluded that he had suffered a fractured skull and a brain bleed, which resulted in his death.

Hernandez’s heartbroken family later sued the bunk bed manufacturer, Foliot Furniture Pacific, and San Diego State University.

Clark Jacobs and his mother founded Rail Against Danger, an advocacy group that reports stories of college students being injured by falling out of dorm beds with inadequate rails and safety measures.

The goal is to hold college campuses accountable if they fail to install bed rails on loft beds.

As a result of the group’s efforts, the University System of Georgia began requiring all public campuses to offer bed safety rails to students for free.

Still, some parents want their children to have additional protection by sending them to college with their own kiddie rails — and it seems they may be justified.

Although they are adults, accidents can happen to anyone. Sleeping on an elevated surface puts college students at risk for serious injuries, especially when they are coming home after a late-night party and are more prone to accidentally hurting themselves.

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Megan Quinn is a writer at YourTango who covers entertainment and news, self, love, and relationships.