CPSC bans ALL drop-side cribs

[Jonah Baby]

Seeing what that family went through is enough for me to take a recall like this seriously, no matter how inconvenient or costly it might be to comply with.

Our society has been built to protect the inconveniently stupid.
For someone in my shoes, if my crib had to be replaced for any reason, my baby would probably be sleeping in a laundry basket. COST is an issue for many, no matter how "necessary".
I would also prefer to continue using the non-recalled, properly functioning BANNED drop-side I own than have to DROP my little 3 month old baby over the side of another crib or Pack'nPlay. It isn't mere CONVENIENCE - this could HURT my child.

[4boysmom]

About 8 years ago I was teaching school. I went on vacation and when I arrived back at school after several days away, I was shocked to learn that one of my students had been killed in a crib accident. The crib was old (belonged to the grandparents) and did not meet current safety standards. Their attitude was the one we see so often with carseat safety: "It was safe for our kids, so it is safe for our grandkids". The investigation following the death showed that the crib was SOLID, well maintained, and assembled correcly based on the manufacturer's specifications (I believe they even had the original instruction manual). My little student was just barely three years old when he died. Had the grandparents been aware of current safety standards and replaced the crib, or his parent insisted he not sleep in a crib that was no longer considered safe, he would likely still be alive today.

Poor baby and parents, and caregivers too Is it fair to assume it was a slats to wide or the mattress was too small?

[carseatcoach]

These are the same arguments parents use to FF a 6-month-old -- "my other kids did it and they were fine", "it's so much more convenient for me", "no one has the right to tell me how to parent", "it's just a little whiplash" (just a few bruises), and so on.

A. Parents should critically examine the evidence and not assume that the cribs are fine just because their other kids are fine.

B. Techs/advocates should remember that most parents love their kids and want to keep them safe, and even loving and caring parents sometimes disregard evidence, and it's not because of a lack of loving and caring, and calling these loving and caring parents stupid and abusive is not likely to change their minds.

[Sadierain]

These are the same arguments parents use to FF a 6-month-old -- "my other kids did it and they were fine", "it's so much more convenient for me", "no one has the right to tell me how to parent", "it's just a little whiplash" (just a few bruises), and so on.

A. Parents should critically examine the evidence and not assume that the cribs are fine just because their other kids are fine.

B. Techs/advocates should remember that most parents love their kids and want to keep them safe, and even loving and caring parents sometimes disregard evidence, and it's not because of a lack of loving and caring, and calling these loving and caring parents stupid and abusive is not likely to change their minds.

I don't think these are comparable at all. FF'ing a 6-month-old has been conclusively proven to be unsafe. You cannot equate a properly functioning drop-side crib whose mechanism has been tested and declared safe to FF'ing a 6 month old. You just can't. This isn't just convenience, we're not just saying "It's fine because those other kids are fine;" We're discussing real problem such as children with severe medical problems, we're having our cribs examined and tested before declaring them safe. There ARE problems with this ban that CPSC is ignoring.

[jourdysmom]

Don't be surprised if your children flat out refuse to use it. My mother had the idea that i would use her old crib for my kids. Uh, no. They don't make them like that any more for a reason.

Yah because the manufacturers got CHEAP!!!! My drop side mechanisms are 10 years old, purchased new when DD1 was born as the old ones were slightly rusty... so I trust tehm fully, and even my 183 pounds trying to force the sides down will not make it drop without the proper procedure ( lift rail, push down on foot bar with foot, push foot bar forward, drop rail...)

It still meets (or did til this ban) all current regulations.

[AwwMama]

Another reason I got rid of my 30 year old crib, the slats were too wide and no longer met the standard. I questioned the safety/toxicity of the finish and metal parts as well. Plus today's mattresses didn't fit securely without a huge gap. I wouldn't reuse a mattress, but that's a whole other ball of wax.

Finally got the "correct" parts for my crib today. Delta sent me a 10% coupon to replace my crib, too. You'd think they'd do better than 10% though...really.

[jourdysmom]

Another reason I got rid of my 30 year old crib, the slats were too wide and no longer met the standard. I questioned the safety/toxicity of the finish and metal parts as well. Plus today's mattresses didn't fit securely without a huge gap. I wouldn't reuse a mattress, but that's a whole other ball of wax.

Really?? My slats are the right width apart, a soda can won't fit, and even though it tested negative for lead paint, I had it professionally refinished My mattress fits so tight that you almost have to stuff it in, no gaps at all... strange that there were that big a difference. Mine is a Simmons I believe.

[seamonkeys]

Crud, so the 1st drop-side crib I decide to buy (for the 3rd baby) I'll likely not be able to resell my crib when we're done! I would have bought one of the no-drop side styles, but except for Ikea ones, they are nearly impossible for me to reach in to the bottom level! That's why I loved my Ikea that was low enough for me to reach over. Guess I should have stuck with Ikea and just not had matching furniture for a couple of years.

[jennzee]

Poor baby and parents, and caregivers too Is it fair to assume it was a slats to wide or the mattress was too small?

I don't remember the exact details of what happened, but it was related to the fit of the mattress.

[mimieliza]

Uh, no, they were recalled because babies were KILLED, including kids in correctly assembled cribs.

My crib is correctly assembled. It's been a toddler bed for a year now, once I started reading about these deaths, but I was able to 'create' a scenario in which the side could drop without the crib being incorrectly assembled.

Shoddy parts caused the death of children. Not bruising. DEATHS.

No, the cribs recalled by La Jobi (manufacturer of our Bonavita crib that I am choosing to continue using) have caused 40 reported incidents (out of more than 300,000 cribs). These have resulted in several falls and one child received bruises. I know other cribs have caused deaths, but these particular cribs have not.

Also, you cannot compare cribs to car seats. One can observe a crib day in and day out and see that it is performing correctly and unlikely to fail. It is sturdy, assembled correctly, does not wobble, drop side operates smoothly, mattress fits snugly, etc. Car seats, on the other hand, do not fail until they are involved in an accident. There's no way to tell whether the seat will function properly or not UNTIL there is an accident, which is precisely when the seat needs to perform perfectly.

[Evolily]

Also, you cannot compare cribs to car seats. One can observe a crib day in and day out and see that it is performing correctly and unlikely to fail. It is sturdy, assembled correctly, does not wobble, drop side operates smoothly, mattress fits snugly, etc. Car seats, on the other hand, do not fail until they are involved in an accident. There's no way to tell whether the seat will function properly or not UNTIL there is an accident, which is precisely when the seat needs to perform perfectly.

My understanding is some of the cribs did fail without any obvious defect. It wasn't that they were wobbling, it's that the bottom edge of the gate came loose and the kids fell through the side and got caught.

And with car seats, you CAN tell if they will fail before hand some or most of the time. One common causes of recall are harness adjuster failure, and you can often check to see if it will fail (come loose after tightened).

[Unregistered1]

Well. I guess it's cosleeping for me... because I can't afford a new crib! In fact, I couldn't afford the one I have!

[jaded]

There are, even now, a very few cases that overhead shields would be best for (came up in the OI thread to try to find one of those seats). But they are hard to find because of the ban.

I wasn't aware that overhead shield seats were ever banned? I thought that Evenflo and Cosco each still made a model with them.

[zeo2ski]

I'm just over 5 foot myself, and the cribs being lower to the ground doesn't really help me at all - I still can't bend over the rail nearly far enough to get my babies in safely.

My neighbor is 4'11" and was surprised to be able to easily put my baby in and out of our stationary crib (Child Craft, $185) at the lowest setting.

[Athena]

Well. I guess it's cosleeping for me... because I can't afford a new crib! In fact, I couldn't afford the one I have!

It's an ironic, strange, and difficult turn of events, isn't it? Not that long ago, co-sleeping was considered to be terribly dangerous. Then we learn that a lot of cribs can be dangerous. It's a lot for a new mom to take and know what to do with, especially when you're in that severely sleep deprived hormonal state like most new moms. This was a very difficult thing for me personally to sort out, especially while I was too tired to think straight.

[LP Mom]

The rules are not final yet so you can contact your legislators or the CPSC and comment on the proposed rules.

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10301.html

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml10/10225.html

Having said that, I support a ban. It is about time the govt. got tough with these sloppy manufacturers.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...365473710.html

[Maedze]

It's an ironic, strange, and difficult turn of events, isn't it? Not that long ago, co-sleeping was considered to be terribly dangerous. Then we learn that a lot of cribs can be dangerous. It's a lot for a new mom to take and know what to do with, especially when you're in that severely sleep deprived hormonal state like most new moms. This was a very difficult thing for me personally to sort out, especially while I was too tired to think straight.

The crib manufacturers were responsible for the lie that co-sleeping is dangerous

A safe co-sleeping situation is far safer than a baby sleeping alone in a crib, and always has been, but that fact doesn't sell cribs.

[monstah]

I'm scratching my head at some of the replies. I am actually pleased to read about the ban and support it 100%.

[Wiggles]

My question with this ban is whether it will be a unilateral ban to all cribs which have any kind of drop-side mechanism that might ever exist or if it simply bans all the current mechanisms? Because I can think of several designs, in my head, that would be nearly impossible to break/misinstall/have fail/have a child accidentally drop and it seems silly to ban the entire concept vs. banning a set of mechanisms.

[Kalinky]

Ugh. About to vomit just now seeing that our Simmons crib is recalled as of June 24th. I just sent away for the parts to immobilize the drop side, but they won't arrive for 2-4 weeks! WTH am I supposed to do in the meantime!?

There's a $79 crib at Ikea. Does anybody know if a regular crib mattress will fit in an Ikea crib?

DH will think I'm nuts for wanting to just get a whole new crib.

I wish we could co-sleep.