Article Source: msnbc.com
from:msnbc.comCribs with a side rail that moves up and down so parents can lift children from them more easily would be banned under legislation aimed at reducing infant deaths.
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Okay, so we need to make things in the US, this story just reinforces the issue.
The beautiful benefits of NAFTA.
Instead of banning drop-side cribs, why don't we just ban the cheap plastic guide tracks that are prone to breaking? After delivering both of my children via c-section, I wouldn't have been able to reach over the rail to lift my baby out of the crib without excruciating pain for the first couple months of my baby's life. Being able to drop the rail helped immensely.
Good point which I totally agree. Go back to the metal rails. Safety over profit, that is one point that capitalism has failed totally!
And so, no more caregivers who are short and can't possibly lift a baby high enough to get over a fixed railing. Then, if by chance you get the baby there - plop, there being no way to lay the baby down over the high railing!
Then I guess you have to leave the baby there, because you can't reach down over the railing.
So now, only tall people can be caretakers!
I love your imagery! Yes, this legislation is wrought with ignorance. It's proposed by a woman who is, I believe, 5'6" - over two inches taller than the average American woman, at 5'3.8". (She appears in photos to be of equal height to Hillary Clinton, whom published sources describe as 5'6".) Since about half the women in the U.S. are between 5-foot and 5'4", it doesn't make sense to legislate cribs that they cannot use. The majority of caretakers are still women!
We have a Senate full of men and tall women who will vote on this. Great. We're going to see a lot more deaths from co-sleeping, now that women have nowhere else to put their babies at night.
I can hardly lift my niece out of her crib without the side dropped - nor can her mother. We are only 5' 5"! What if the person lifting the child was pregnant and unable to a) bend over much, and b) unable to get too close to the crib in the first place? Why not require American-made, American-quality products with reliable engineering and let Americans CHOOSE for themselves what they want to purchase?
We will never know how many lives were saved by the use of such cribs. These cribs are popular because they help parents put their infants to sleep. Infants who sleep better are less likely to end up in their parents' bed and suffocate there or die from SIDS. Plus, when infants sleep, parents sleep. Having well-rested parents saves lives. Never mind the parents with bad backs who will now suffer because of congressional malpractice.
Most likely, the baby furniture industry is afraid of lawsuits and is seeking protection from competition by free-market, freedom-loving consumers and their suppliers. Alternatively, crib manufacturers want to increase demand for their products by outlawing their used-crib competitors.
To protect parental choice, join "Save Drop-Side Cribs" on Facebook. http://www.facebook.com/?ref=logo#!/pages/Save-Drop-Side-Cribs/117005588335918
Some interesting satisitics on births in the US (taken from CDC website except for 2009 estimate). There were approximately 33,192,192 births in the US from 2002 to 2009 and 35 infant deaths attributed to cribs since 2002. The percentage is:
0.00000105446485727728000000000
birth vs deaths due to crib drop down sides. I wonder what the number is for infants killed in automobile accidents and if we should look at banning parents from transporting babies by car or better yet, lets just ban cars all together for people with infants. I think common sense should prevail here. Yes, it is a tradedy that these children died and my heart goes out to them as a parent. Could it have been prevented??? Where were the parents? Did the manufactures intentionally design a crib to kill infants - I think not.
Just think about this - Consumer Product Saftey Commission is out to keep their name in the public by sensationalizing and capitalizing on the misfortune of these deaths not to mention keep their jobs and funding. What is the real motivation here.
Parents are encouraged to keep the baby's crib in their own room. I do wonder how a parent could fail to notice the crib side problem if baby was in the same room. I co-slept with my first child despite the warnings, because she slept best with us in our bed. My second child didn't sleep well sharing a bed, so we kept him in a drop-side crib next to our bed. I knew every time he squirmed, and would have attented to a faulty drop-side crib immediately. I feel so sorry for the parents who had to discover their dead child after the fact, because he was all alone in another room. I do think we should just encourage parents to share the child's room, instead of taking away their crib. More kids die of tummy sleep than drop-side cribs, and yet we haven't outlawed it. We just suggest back sleeping.
Agreed. Thanks for the statistics, I was wondering that myself. Even if you look at the number of drop-sides that have been recalled vs the number of deaths, it's still insanely low. .0000004% of the recalled drop-side cribs have 'caused death'.
I don't want to sound mean or inconsiderate either, and I do feel for the losses parents have encountered, but why are we trying to make it someone elses' fault? Let's put the blame on the manufacture because the parent put the crib together wrong? How could a parent not notice the side of the crib is broken?
My mother has an old crib that we use when we go over that is designed with a fold down side. The top part of the one side of the crib folds out like a door put on it's side. If manufactures would design cribs with these sides again it would help both worlds. Mom's like me who are 5'4", and the legislation who thinks that consumer purchases are a dictatorship.
I chose a fixed side crib, mainly because it fit our budget (it was seriously the cheapest crib I could find and it's sturdier than the crib my sister purchased for $100 more). I don't have great difficulty in putting my infant in it, or taking her out, but right now the mattress is at the highest setting. Once she's able to stand, then I'll have to drop the mattress, which will make for my putting her down difficult.
Making cribs in American isn't going to do anything but increase the cost of them, and they're already outrageously expensive. Parents should just take responsibility in caring and raising their children.
As a very young child, I once fell out of a crib that did not have the side lowered, while trying to climb out of it. I'm lucky I didn't break my neck. Nobody was crying then that cribs should all have to have lowered sides for kids who climb out. Two things happened: my parents kept the side lowered after that, and I never tried to climb out again.
Maybe cribs should be made SAFER, instead of banning certain designs because we don't want to fix them?