Nursery advisor

Baby cribs come in all shapes and sizes

Sleeping or resting in the crib or infant bed is how your baby will spend the majority of their time in the nursery. Here are some useful tips to help ensure your child's safety.


0 Ratings | 0 Comments

Parents often buy used or second hand cribs that are handed down from family members. Over the years, safety standards, construction requirements, and materials restrictions have all become more stringent to help ensure that every infant bed meets the minimum safety requirements. Today's safety requirements, which were previously either non-existent or much less stringent, are now imposed upon manufacturers to help protect babies and small children from poor construction and faulty or damaged parts.

Whether you are considering putting your baby in a second-hand crib or purchasing a new one. Follow these simple steps to help you decide whether your baby crib is safe for your child.

  1. Check for consumer recalls for cribs on the manufacturer's web site or go to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's national recall Web site (see link below), for example, and type in the information on your crib. This will tell you whether or not your crib has been recalled and what to do about it.

  2. Look over the crib’s structure. The safety standards for cribs have changed a lot over the years and are now more stringent. An older or more dated crib may not meet today's safety standards.

  3. Crib rails, for instance, must meet specific measurement requirements. If the crib rails are too far apart, your child might get their head stuck between the bars. However, if the bars are too close together, then your child might get their arms or legs stuck between them.

  4. There should be enough space between the top of the rail and the top of the crib mattress to minimize the risk of your child climbing over the railing and falling out.

  5. Crib slats need to be less than 2 3/8-inch apart to ensure that your baby’s body cannot fit partway through the slats and get stuck.

  6. Railings should also be fail-safe to prevent them from coming down when they aren't supposed to and crushing the fingers of caregivers or hurting baby. Parental safety is an issue as well. Make sure that the rails are high enough to keep your infant in the crib when they pull themselves up, but also low enough for you to reach over to the far side and pick up your child without having to lower the bars.

  7. Make sure that slats aren’t loose or broken—fix or replace them before use. Cribs with large cut-out designs in the headboard or footboard present a strangulation hazard and should not be used.

  8. Corner posts should be no more than 1/16-inch higher than the rails. If they are too tall, remove them so they don't entangle your baby's clothing in the event that he or she tries to climb out of bed.

  9. Check for loose or missing hardware and make sure that the mattress support hangers are all connected securely. Replace any screws that can’t be tightened. If any staples were used, they need to be secure and flush. Missing hardware can cause cribs to come apart and mattresses to sag.

  10. Check older, painted cribs for lead-based paint. Repaint them with enamel paint in a well-ventilated area. Make sure the crib is dry and free of fumes before you use it. Check older cribs very carefully for cracked, splintered or chipped wood, then sand or repair them. Make sure that the side rails close securely and can’t be pried open by little fingers.

  11. The mattress must fit your crib. It should be firm—nothing soft enough for baby to roll around on. It must fit very snugly along all sides and corners, with no more than two fingers' width of room between the mattress and the sides.

  12. Never cover the mattress with plastic bags or sheets of plastic as these have been known to cause smothering deaths in infants. Never use anything in your baby’s crib except sheets made for cribs which fit snugly and won’t pull up at the sides or corners.

  13. Keep strings, cords, ribbons and ties away from the crib entirely. Window blind strings and curtain ties are the leading cause of infant strangulations. Tie them far up and out of the way if the crib is near a window. Tie-down devices are available for this purpose where baby supplies are sold. Don’t tie cords, ribbons, chains, pacifiers or bibs onto your baby (inside or outside of the crib). Avoid using mini-hammocks, since millions of them have been recalled on account of them being strangulation hazards.

  14. Bedding sets usually come with matching pillows and blankets to match the bumper and crib sheet. Although these bedding sets may look cute, they also pose a suffocation risk. Remove all soft bedding and pillows from the crib. One study estimated that 30 percent of cribs where SIDS deaths occurred had soft bedding. Even if this is a minor factor, it’s worth paying attention to. Use a baby sleeper or a thin baby blanket if necessary. Infant pillows or cushions have played a part in many infant deaths and should not be used at all.

  15. Be careful about putting toys into cribs. A crib without toys is best. If you must use toys, make sure that they are big and firm and cannot fit inside your baby’s mouth. Toys with removable eyes, squeakers or small, removable or breakable parts should be removed. Anything that fits inside a toilet paper roll is too small to be around your baby or toddler.

  16. Check that your bumper pads fit the crib exactly all the way around so there are no gaps. Tie the pads tightly and trim away any excess material after tying. If snaps are used, make sure they are all snapped into place. Remove these when your baby is approximately five months old.

  17. Put the mattress in the lowest position once your baby can stand up, and remove all bumper pads and large toys that can be climbed on.

Comments
 
 

Most popular