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Publication #FAR0415

Crib Safety1

Donna Davis2

When my husband and I first learned we were going to be parents, we were very young and very broke. When we were offered a beautiful, antique, heirloom wrought-iron crib for our baby's nursery, we were thrilled…until my mother-in-law came to visit and enlightened us about crib safety. And grandma was right! While the antique was lovely to look at, it was definitely not safe.

According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a crib is the safest place for a baby to sleep. However, especially if you're using an older or a custom-built crib, parents should make certain that their baby's crib has no missing or broken hardware and that the slats are no more than 2 3/8" apart (about the width of a soda can). Also, corner posts should not exceed 1/16" height, there should be no cutout designs on the headboard or footboard, and the crib should have a firm, tight-fitting mattress and fitted bottom sheet. The mattress is considered too loose if you can fit more than two finger widths between the edge of the mattress and the crib side. The Safety Commission also recommends you also look for a safety certification seal on new cribs (Consumer Product Safety Commission, n.d.).

Nursery fashion can also be a hazard if you load the crib up with those tempting, soft, fluffy pillows, quilts, sheepskins, and stuffed animals for baby to snuggle up with. Soft and cuddly can also be suffocating. For more information on protecting your baby while they sleep, visit our Web site at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

Listening, learning, and living together: it's the science of life. "Family Album" is a co-production of University of Florida IFAS Extension, the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences and of WUFT-FM. If you'd like to learn more, please visit our Web site at http://www.familyalbumradio.org.

To listen to the radio broadcast:

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/374.mp3

http://www.radiosource.net/radio_stories/374.wav

References

Consumer Product Safety Commission. (n.d.) Safety tips for sleeping babies. Retrieved October 1, 2007, from http://www.cpsc.gov/CPSCPUB/PUBS/203.html

FirstCandle. (n.d.) SIDS facts. Retrieved October 1, 2007, from http://www.sidsalliance.org/expectantparents/exp_sids.html

Footnotes

1.

This document is FAR0415, one of a series of the Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. First published March 2009. In the interest of time or clarity, the broadcast version of this script may have been modified. Please visit the EDIS Web site at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

2.

Donna Davis, Senior Producer, Family Album Radio, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida, Gainesville, FL 32611. Reviewed by Suzanna Smith, Department of Family, Youth and Community Sciences, University of Florida.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Millie Ferrer-Chancy, Interim Dean.