Why Child Safety: Make Your Nursery A Safe Haven

Every parent wants to ensure the child safety and maximum comfort for the baby. And having the best baby crib is the top priority to ensure that. Parents are easily categorizable in two ways while choosing a crib for their little one. Some just love the heavily designed crib, whereas others like the minimalistic crib.

Both cribs are safe, only if they meet certain criteria.

Now, before I talk about those criteria, let’s talk about how a crib can be dangerous for the baby if they don’t meet those criteria.

You heard about SIDS, right?

Still now, SIDS are quite mysterious to scientists and Pediatrics. But they do recognize, a faulty designed crib may be one of the so many reasons of SIDS.

Let me be a little bit precise and give you some tips on how to ensure the safety of your baby.

Avoid Drop Side Cribs

You know about “drop-sides” in a crib right? Using a drop-side is so much dangerous that it is now banned! But still, some parents love to use them. So careless!

Safety comes first, right? But when it’s about child safety, you just can’t be “LESS CAREFUL”. Yes, using a drop-side is comfortable for parents, especially to short parents. But, just STOP using it, for the sake of the safety of your baby….

In fact, in modern times, all the major crib manufacturers like the Million Dollar Baby (owns DaVinci & Babyletto) and Ikea are producing fixed side cribs. Go for these fixed side cribs. Babyletto Hudson convertible crib is highly recommended by parents.

Child Safety

That’s not all for crib safety….

Space Between Spindles

If you buy your crib from a local store of unknown brand, then you need to be more careful. Space between spindles is a major safety concern. As per government rule, the maximum allowed space between slats is 2 ⅜ inches. Anything lower than that is good. So make sure you put your attention here.

Why?

You know it already. If the space between spindles is greater than 2 ⅜ inches, leg or hands of your little one may be stuck. And you don’t know what might happen in such cases.

If you are planning to use an old crib, then you must pay attention to such issue too. Because, naturally over the passage of time, space between such slats become bigger. So, as per expert, you should not use an old crib for your new baby.

You have nothing to worry about spindles space if you go for the crib from the brands mentioned above.

Check Nuts Bolts

This is something you should do after a regular 6 months interval. Over the passage of time, nuts and bolts of the crib get loose and that may lead to potential accidents. You should check and recheck them and if needed tighten them when needed.

Another important thing about these nuts and bolts of the crib is that make sure these are hidden in the crib. If these are not hidden, your baby may cut herself.

Beware Of Chemicals

If any crib meets ASTM International & U.S. CPSC safety standards, these are safe for your baby. Also, meeting those standard means, the crib emits as low as a possible chemical in the indoor environment. In some cases, if your crib says it’s GREENGUARD GOLD Certified, then the crib is safe too.

That’s not all…

Make sure the finish of your crib is lead and phthalate safe. Now, pay attention here. These two are really dangerous for the baby.  Almost all wood products contain them. And these two can hamper the ability to learn of your baby, meaning these chemicals hamper the brain of your baby.

Notice, I said safe NOT free about lead and phthalate. These two components can’t be totally free from any wooden products. But when it meets federal safety standards, it becomes safe. Your crib should clearly mention about it.

So make sure, your crib meets those standards.

Items To Keep Out Of Crib

You like to have stuffed toys around the crib for your little one, right? Well, guess what, as per experts, not only just stuffed toys you should always keep out all types of comforters, GPS devices, bumper pads, pillows of your crib.

Sound disappointing?

But believe it or not, these items can be harmful elements for your baby, specially if your little one is just an infant. As per AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics), your crib should have nothing but a standard crib mattress and crib sheet.

You should even avoid sleep positioners and baby monitor cords. Doesn’t that sound strange? Sleeping on the back of the baby supposes to reduce the risk of SIDS and sleep positioners help to do that. Also, parents use a baby monitor for extra safety of the baby.

But with statistics, along with U.S. CPSC, FDA has issued a caution to parents about these. And they said using sleep positioners and baby monitor cord was responsible for almost 16 deaths since 2004.

I can’t stress it more, but you should consider the safety of your baby and take the advice from CPSC and FDA.

There are more to consider.

All types of crib whether a mini crib or full-size crib comes with a lot of holes. And you need to use a lot of screws, nuts, and bolts. Sometimes they are so sharp that your baby can cut herself. So make sure, all the hardware are hidden.

Crib Mattress

The crib mattress should fit snugly your crib. If there is any space between the sides of the crib and the mattress, it might be dangerous for your baby too. Also, just like a crib, mattress emits harmful chemical too. So, try to ensure your crib mattress meets those above-mentioned standards.

Another thing about the crib mattress. For the infant, avoid too soft mattress. A Too soft mattress may lead to suffocation for the infant. But for the toddler, a soft mattress is desirable.

Having many adjustable mattress positions is also good.  Usually, there are 3 to 4 mattress settings in a standard size crib. If your baby is an escape artist, lower the mattress settings to the lowest level.

Teething Rail

Sooner or later, your baby will start biting the crib rail. There will be huge teeth marks here and there around the rail. But the worse part is that such biting will damage the teeth of your baby. Also, chemical finishes may create a health hazard.

Very few cribs come with guard rail protector. If your crib does not come with such protector, buy one immediately. A lot of brands offer such protector at a very cheap price. You can buy it from your local store or from online like Walmart or Amazon.

As you can see, there are a lot of issues to consider while you are planning about your nursery. You want it to look more beautiful as you can and there is nothing wrong about it. Since, the safety of your baby should be you prime factor to consider, try to make your nursery as safe as possible.

I hope you have learned a thing or two about crib safety. Please feel free to share the post so that your friends and family can learn about it too.

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