More than a crib – our commitment to child safety

Designed with safety in mind

We have a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to safety and health related risks with regards to our children’s products. To keep safety in focus throughout all stages of our product development, we have a risk assessment process called ‘Design for Safety’. It involves identifying and evaluating potential safety risks during every phase. All co-workers and suppliers that develop products for children receive training on children’s needs and development to ensure that our products are safe for all stages of a child’s life.

As safe as they are functional

From building secret fortresses to accidentally swallowing small parts, we know children are often doing unexpected things with our products. Here are a few product features that have been designed to increase safety and eliminate risk for children:

• We know kids love to explore things with their mouths. That’s why all of our arts and crafts products are non-toxic – even the inks and paints are harmless if ingested. The lids of our MÅLA felt-tip pens also have air-holes in them in case of swallowing.
• Our cots don’t have any small components that can be removed or worked loose, eliminating the risk of choking.
• Both our bunk beds and extendable beds have built-in guardrails that prevent children from falling out. The gaps in the guardrails are small enough not to accidentally fall through them, but also big enough to not get stuck with a finger or an arm while sleeping.
• The breathing holes in our wardrobe and storage products ensure extra safety when getting trapped or playing hide and seek.
• To prevent any risk of small children getting caught or tangled up, cords have been removed from all our textile blinds.
• The IKEA PS FÅNGST hanging storage organiser has Velcro® at the top as anchoring, so that it falls down if a little one tries to climb in it.
• IKEA baby toys do not contain any accessible small parts that can be swallowed or inhaled. All holes are sized and shaped to prevent fingers from getting stuck, and we only use safe, non-toxic paints and lacquer that are okay for babies to chew on.
• The SMÅBIT knife has a rounded tip, a good grip for small hands and an anti-slip protector so that small hands don’t slide down on the edge.
• Our soft toys now have embroidered eyes and no plastic parts to avoid any risk of choking. All soft toys are exposed to saliva enzymes to confirm that they are free of any harmful chemicals that could be extracted if chewed on.

Strict, precautionary requirements

Children are more sensitive than adults and may use products in a different way. We therefore work with a lot of precaution. Our strict product requirements are applied to all markets where IKEA products are sold. By monitoring and collecting legislations in all sales markets, we create specifications that often exceed legal demands. In the case of many of our children’s products, we go above and beyond the legal requirements.

Only the safest chemicals and materials

We have phased out several potentially harmful chemicals like lead, brominated flame retardants, and formaldehyde in colours and lacquers, often ahead of legislation. Colourants that have been identified as carcinogenic are also banned from use in our products.

Continuous safety testing

All of our children’s products are tested at our own accredited test laboratory in Sweden, as well as at independent accredited test laboratories and institutes around the world. To ensure that all of our products live up to our demanding standards for quality and safety, they are subjected to regular testing throughout their lifetimes.

Sharing safety knowledge

We believe that by sharing insights and knowledge about child safety, we can empower our customers to create even safer homes. As part of our Safer Home Initiative, we have developed knowledge workshops on how to improve home safety for families with small children.