Most people today know what a drop-side crib is. They are the very convenient and stylish baby cribs that allow parents easy access to their infants by lowering the front rail. This style of crib has been used for many years and parents have enjoyed the luxury of not leaning over those hard wood or metal front rails to lay a sleeping baby down or retrieve a hungry baby.
There is only one big problem here: these baby cribs have killed thousands of babies over the years and injured even more!
It used to be that SIDS was the only imaginable death that a baby could encounter while in a baby crib. Parents worried over that plenty, and with good reason, but what they never worried much over was the safety of the actual crib itself. If you are a grandparent then you may remember the days when cribs were assumed to be safe places for babies, but those days are long gone.
Parents today are being cautioned to do several things in order to keep their babies safe while sleeping:
* Never put a baby crib together without reading the instruction manual thoroughly.
* Check your baby cribs routinely for missing parts, damage, and defects.
* Fix any problems you find before laying your baby in the crib again. No problem is “small” or “minor” when it comes to a baby crib!
* Stop purchasing secondhand cribs unless they come with the instructions and you are 100% certain all parts are still included.
* Stop purchasing drop-side cribs.
That is a lot to worry about for new parents, but with the thousands of infant injuries and deaths that have occurred just over the past couple years it is about time parents were widely warned of the dangers of drop-side cribs.
In 2009, Toys R Us took a necessary stand and announced through public media that they would no longer be selling drop-side baby cribs. Many small retailers followed suit and today it is a bit harder to find these cribs through retail stores as some manufacturers scale back their production of these baby cribs as well.
Further, many parents are now deciding not to purchase this style of crib out of fear that their babies or grandbabies could be the next ones injured or even killed. To top it all off, a ban has been proposed against drop-side cribs in the U.S. This ban is being backed by many baby crib manufacturers and retailers and it stands a good chance of being passed into U.S. law.
The ban will prevent the sale of drop-side cribs in the U.S. but would not make it illegal for older cribs with the dropping front rail to be used in private homes. While it may be impossible to completely eliminate all of these cribs from all homes, the ban will go a long way to eliminating them as no new drop-side cribs will be sold through retailers in coming years.
Parents who do their research into baby cribs prior to making a purchase are finding out about this ban and standing behind it. They are standing up for the safety of their babies and babies around the country by purchasing baby cribs with four stable, permanent rails.
Essentially, a movement is coming about where parents are banning these dangerous cribs through their consumer habits! Go parents!
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