Crib Safety

Safety in your baby’s nursery

The exciting day of birth is almost there and part becoming a parent is designing a room for your newborn baby. This is probably the most exciting day of your life; but there are aspect of the décor of the baby’s room you should consider, such as the style, safety and quality of the crib bedding and accessories.

Designing the nursery, you get a chance to go shopping with the hubby (or not), take in a dinner and decide what theme you want for you baby’s room. It just might be the last time you get time to yourselves until the little one is older. The most imports part of your nursery is the baby’s bedding.

Your primary concern is safety and the quality of the product, the theme should be the last concern but sometime when you see Winnie the Pooh crib bedding, or that pink princess bedding, even the blue and red trucks, the last thing you think about is “how safe is this bedding”.

Well, you’re in luck because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) job oversees the safe bedding practices for babies. Since the early 1990s there have been mixed message from manufactures, advertisers and marketers on safe crib bedding for baby nurseries. So the CPSC, in 2000, set up a campaign to warn about the danger of soft bedding for babies under 12 months.

Before they started this campaign, in stores and when you browsed through catalogs, you would see pillows, comforters, and quilts in cribs and with bedding themes. You would buy the complete set thinking everything would be okay with your nursery. But this was never the case. Parents were unaware of the dangers these items could be for young babies. But that has now been changed, and changed for the safety of your baby.

According to CPSC Chairman Ann Brown, “Parents and caregivers will no longer get a mixed message on how to create a safe sleeping environment for their baby. Whether browsing through a catalog or floor display, cribs will now display a safe way to put baby to sleep.”

Safe Bedding Practices For Babies Under 12 Months

The CPSC, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development recommend the following to help keep your baby safe in their new crib:

• Place your baby on his/her back on a firm, tight-fitting mattress in a crib that meets current safety standards.
• Remove pillows, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, pillow-like stuffed toys and other pillow-like soft products from the crib.
• Consider using a sleeper as an alternative to blankets with no other covering.
• If using a blanket, put baby with his or her feet at the foot of the crib. Tuck a thin blanket around the crib mattress, only as far as the baby’s chest.
• Make sure your baby’s head remains uncovered during sleep.
• Do not place baby on a waterbed, sofa, soft mattress, pillow or other soft surface to sleep.

CPSC is working with manufacturers to get warning labels on infant pillows, and is now working for a similar warning on baby quilts and comforters.

They are making sure the crib bedding you buy for your newborn is safe for them to sleep in and you get a good night sleep knowing your baby is safe and sound in their crib.

For more information about children’s safety and recalls of children’s toys and products, contact:

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission

Washington, DC 20207

Toll-free hotline: 1-800-638-2772

Web site: www.cpsc.gov  (Go to Recalls/News)