After dozens of deaths, drop-side cribs outlawed

[The Straight Story]

After dozens of deaths, drop-side cribs outlawed

WASHINGTON — The government is outlawing drop-side cribs after the deaths of more than 30 infants and toddlers in the past decade.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has voted unanimously to ban the manufacture, sale and re-sale of the cribs, which have a side rail that moves up and down, allowing parents to more easily lift their child from the crib.

Around for decades, drop-side cribs have come under scrutiny in recent years because of malfunctioning hardware, sometimes cheaper plastics, or assembly problems that can lead to the drop-side rail partially detaching from the crib. When that happens, it can create a dangerous "V"-like gap between the mattress and side rail where a baby can get caught and suffocate or strangle.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40678788/ns/politics/from/toolbar

[drm604]

1. K&R for anyone who has such a crib and doesn't realize the danger, n/t

[guruoo]

2. They could make it to where the entire rail structure slides straight down to the floor.

[hedgehog]

3. Thanks for posting this - I think we have a couple drop side cribs out in the barn that

will now stay there unless re-purposed for something other than as a crib!

[hlthe2b]

4. I remember one in my Grandmother's house decades ago...

They were made so much different than the ones today. As I recall the rail did go towards the floor and would not have left a gap as described. Of course the thing weighed a friggin ton, being made of heavy duty materials back then and I'll bet made in the US.


Sad that this could happen to the manufacture of a product so vital to a child's well-being.

[hedgehog]

6. My 81 year old Dad has the crib he used - made of steel I think-

it's not safe to use because of the spacing of the bars.

[hlthe2b]

10. Lots to consider nowadays...

I wonder if there were also a lot of children who died back in their day from crib accidents that were just not reported. I can honestly say this was not a concern ever expressed by my Mom's generation, though, of course SIDs was known to occur and might have been just lumped together. :shrug:

[hedgehog]

16. As I said elsewhere in this thread, a lot of accidents were

considered one-of-a-kind freak accidents until the Consumer Product Safety Commission went out, collected the data, and found that certain accidents happened over and over again. Other items that have been changed are window cords and drawstrings on shirts and hoods. Maybe only 10 kids a year strangled on them, but what if it was your kid?

Hey - I've got a kid alive today only because all my kids were taught to wear a bicycle helmet every time.

[hlthe2b]

17. Ahh, good on you and your son...

Nice to hear a testament to improved regulation and oversight.

[hedgehog]

18. Well , actually it was a daughter who flipped her bike over riding

down a steep hill. She ended up with a ruptured spleen and bruised kidney. The helmet took the impact right over her temporal lobe.

[NightWatcher]

5. We just picked up the family crib(70+years old) complete with a drop side

And we'll be using it for the little one come April/May. All of my aunts, uncles, cousins, mom, and myself used.

I trust it. More than a dozen of us survived it, plus we've registered for a kick ass video baby monitor..

[hedgehog]

7. The instances of infants smothering after wedging themselves

into gaps or through the bars were rare, that's why no one picked up on the problem until the Consumer Products Safety Commission started collecting data. So the odds are no child will be harmed even if any given crib is used for 100 children. The problem is, the risk is low, but the consequences devastating. You can get a brand new crib at Sear's for $85. Do you really want to bet $85 your kid won't end up as a statistic?

[NightWatcher]

9. I'd trust the one I know to the probably Chinese-made crap at Sears

[hlthe2b]

12. This would have been of the same genre as the one in my grandmother's

house. She's gone now, as is the house with all the belongings, but it just seems like that crib would have been safer than anything available today... you might check the spacing between the rails, though as mentioned upstream.

[NightWatcher]

14. My older cousins checked it out before it was used for any of this generation

It's safe, stable, and the hardware is heavy duty. Hell, I may even paint over the lead paint.

[Taverner]

8. My question: what are the alternatives?

I don't remember there being any when my kids were infants

[TwilightGardener]

11. I don't remember any fixed-side cribs either, when I was crib-shopping.

Of course, I liked the drop side because I am very short. I was a safety fanatic with my kids, and it never occurred to me to be concerned about the crib design.

[Arkansas Granny]

13. I'm pretty sure that all the cribs I saw when I needed them were drop side cribs.

I thought they were all made that way.

[hedgehog]

19. Not to be a flack for any store, it's just the one I think of ,

http://www.sears.com/shc/s/p_10153_12605_04914451000P?prdNo=18&blockNo=18&blockType=G18


Off-topic: Walmart is Walmart, Target's CEO is anti-gay and Sear's and K-Mart were open Thanksgiving Day. Makes deciding where to shop pretty tough these days.

[Lyric]

15. Getting a big, one-piece padded crib liner would also solve the problem

without banning anything. It can attach to the upper rails, so that the baby can't just push the liner down into the crack too, and keep the baby in the "safe" part of the crib.

Think of a padded truck-bed liner that's all one solid piece. It would work like that. If it was padded properly, you wouldn't even need an ordinary crib mattress--you just set up the crib frame, drop in the padded liner, and voila--your baby is fully protected from the dangers of the drop-side.

:shrug:

Edit: I just Googled, and apparently this is an idea that nobody has thought of yet? I can't seem to find anything like what I described. Heh. If I had the money, I'd make it and patent it myself.