What you need to know about the Safe Crib Act.
For parents ready to bring home a new baby, creating the perfect nursery is often a priority. From stocking shelves with diapers, lotions, and baby skin sensitive soaps, to the perfect wall color matching meticulously selected sheets, there is a lot to think about!
Many parents may not realize that some items you think you need to have (such as bumpers and blankets) are not actually safe for sleep. We have advocated for the removal of pillows, blankets, and bumpers for newborns and infants due to safety concerns, and the United States government is actively moving forward to ban bumpers from cribs with the new Safe Cribs Act. Introduced by Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-IL) in 2021, the bill was officially introduced to the Senate recently for approval. Under Duckworth’s bill, manufacture, sale, importation, and distribution of crib bumpers would be illegal. Furthermore, under this legislation, Duckworth is requiring the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) to enforce a nationwide ban by declaring them a hazardous product under Section 8 of the Consumer Product Safety Act.
Duckworth has been quoted as saying, “The fact that these deadly products can still be found on shelves across the country is extremely confusing to new parents who don’t believe stores would be selling them if they were truly dangerous to babies. We should be doing everything we can to help new parents and end preventable deaths like these.”
Why did we fall in love with crib bumpers to begin with?
Beginning in the late 70s and early 80s, design trends were shifting and parents noticed cribs were being manufactured and sold with wide gaps in between the slats. Understandably, parents became concerned about injury. As we all know, most babies are active sleepers. They roll, twist, turn, and will wake up in a completely different position than the one they were put down in. With the wider slat positions, it appeared that babies could easily become stuck by their head or limbs. Parents also became worried their baby could fall out through the wider openings. Bumpers became popular in the extremely lucrative baby industry as a way to not only add decoration, but as a device to help avoid injury.
Parents had a right to be concerned. According to a report published by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission in 2011, an estimated 200 infant deaths were reported due to problems with crib design. Later that year, new federal regulations were instituted to require manufacturers and distributors to follow specific standardization and measurements for the distance between crib slats and to allow for specific mattress sizes within the crib. The AAP assures parents that cribs you buy today must meet these U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standards.
The question of crib bumpers
A study was released in 2015 in the Journal of Pediatrics assessing infant deaths between 1985 and 2012, and accidents between 1990 and 2012 related to crib bumpers. The researchers found three times more deaths in the final seven years of the study. Unfortunately, there was a rise in deaths due to suffocation, strangulation by ties, getting wedged between the bumper and the crib or another object, and injuries were often caused by faulty design or poor manufacturing.
In 2019, a further analysis done in Maternal and Child Health Journal showed mothers using crib bumpers had a 3.5 times higher rate of their little one having their mouth covered and at risk of suffocation than using mesh liners or nothing at all. Further analysis showed something alarming, though. 89% of mothers used crib bumpers to prevent slab entrapment and 93.5% used them to avoid hitting their heads. The study concluded mothers were either un-educated about the risk of suffocation or more concerned with preventing small injury than the higher risk of death.
The AAP and CDC (2020) went on to say that crib bumpers had no actual health or safety impact and highly discouraged their use. However, with them still being legal and a popular consumer product, the CDC held a commission to regulate stiffness, size, and try to create safety protocols for manufacturing. Further warning labels were required to guide installation. In response to this, a survey was conducted by John Hopkins University. The results showed crib bumpers were still heavily used and 77% of respondents thought they were safe, but a 5:1 margin of respondents said if the products were dangerous or linked to death, the items should be banned.
What you need to know to create a safe sleep space your little one
Even though the previous study declared mesh liners to be safe, many experts (us included) recommend your crib should only have one tight fitted sheet. If you can press on the mattress and see wrinkles when your hand is removed, the sheet may be worn out or incorrectly sized, thus promoting a choking hazard.
Use a swaddle or sleep slack instead of blankets. A blanket can get wound around your little one or stuck in their mouth, creating suffocation and choking hazards. Sleep Consultant Melinda Muyargas writes, “With swaddling, just be careful to do so safely. Make sure your baby can still breath easily, doesn’t get overheated, and can still move her hips and knees. And of course, make sure you are placing your baby to sleep on her back to avoid the risk of SIDS.”
“Pediatricians know that the safest sleep environment for babies is a firm, flat, bare surface,” said AAP President Lee Savio Beers, MD, FAAP. “Crib bumpers have no place in a safe sleep environment – they pose a risk of suffocation for infants and should not be on the market. The Safe Cribs Act would protect infant lives and help prevent families from experiencing tragedy by prohibiting the sale of these dangerous products. The American Academy of Pediatrics thanks Senators Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.) and Rob Portman (R-Ohio) for their bipartisan leadership on this important legislation and is urging for its swift passage into law.”
The Safe Cribs Act bill has already been supported by The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP), Kids in Danger, Consumer Federation of America, Consumer Reports, Public Citizen, and Breathable Baby.
To help support this bill and encourage it to be passed, you can write to your senator in support of S.1259, Safe Cribs Act.
Similar Articles:
How to make sure on-the-go naps are safe
The safe sleep practices that every parent needs to know
These are the benefits of swaddling your baby
How and when to transition to a toddler bed