Furniture tip-overs are a genuine, ongoing cause of child injury and death, and the safety picture here changed meaningfully in recent years — worth understanding both what's improved and what still requires action regardless of what's bought new.
New dressers must now pass real stability testing
As of September 2023, the STURDY Act made a stability standard (ASTM F2057-23) mandatory for clothing storage furniture — dressers, chests, and similar pieces — sold in the US. This requires manufacturers to test furniture against real-world tip scenarios: simulating the weight of a climbing child up to 60 pounds, multiple drawers open at once, use on carpet, and a dynamic horizontal force test. Compliant units must also include an anchoring kit in the box. CPSC data cited in support of this law found more than 500 deaths from furniture tip-overs between 2000 and 2022, with children the victim in roughly 8 out of 10 of those deaths — this wasn't a theoretical rulemaking exercise, it followed a genuinely severe, well-documented pattern of harm.
Even compliant, brand-new furniture still needs to be anchored
This is the detail most worth internalizing: the CPSC's own stated position is that passing the new stability standard makes furniture more resistant to tipping, but it does not replace anchoring it to a wall. "More stable" and "anchored to a wall stud" are not the same level of protection, and safety advocates and the CPSC both continue to recommend anchoring any furniture taller than a child could climb, regardless of whether it meets the newest standard. Treating a new, compliant dresser as automatically safe without anchoring misses this distinction.
Older and secondhand furniture may not meet the standard at all
Furniture manufactured before September 2023 was not required to meet this stability standard, and a large amount of older furniture — including pieces still being sold secondhand through yard sales, resale marketplaces, and hand-me-downs — predates these requirements entirely. A secondhand dresser being brought into a home with young children is worth treating as needing anchoring by default, not assumed safe just because it looks sturdy or came from a well-known brand.
What actually causes a tip-over
Tip-overs typically happen when a child climbs on an open drawer (used as a step), pulls on a drawer or the furniture itself while standing, or hangs on the front — all of which shift the furniture's center of gravity forward, and an unanchored piece can pivot forward with enough force to fall on a child before an adult can react. This is why manufacturer warnings specifically address not letting children climb, not opening multiple drawers at once, and putting heavier items in lower drawers, alongside anchoring.
The one thing people forget
Anchor every piece of furniture taller than your child that isn't already attached to a wall — not just dressers in a nursery, but bookcases, TV consoles, and any other tall, climbable furniture throughout the home. A common mistake is anchoring one obviously tall piece in a child's room while leaving similar furniture unanchored elsewhere in the house, on the assumption that supervision in other rooms makes anchoring unnecessary there — tip-overs happen quickly enough that supervision alone isn't a reliable substitute.