Chicago bans crib bumpers

No more crib bumpers in Chicago. From Flickr.

Chicago has become the first munincipality in the United States to ban the sale of crib bumpers.

Nancy Cowles, the executive director of Chicago-based Kids in Danger, a nonprofit child-safety group, applauded the Chicago vote (which was unanimous) and expressed her belief that crib bumpers should be outlawed everywhere. Cowles said, “There have been numerous cases of babies found not breathing, with their face up against the bumper…There may have been other products in the crib, and they may have been diagnosed as a SIDS death, but the fact is, their face was up against a bumper.”

Although bumpers were originally used to keep babies from falling out of cribs, Cowles says bumpers are now unnecessary decorations in modern cribs, since regulations require the crib slats to be so narrow that a baby could not fit through them.

The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that bumpers be removed from cribs once kids can stand so that toddlers can’t use them to boost themselves out. It futher recommends: “If bumper pads are used in cribs, they should be thin, firm, well secured, and not ‘pillow-like.’”

The Federal Consumer Product Safety Commission is conducting a bumper safety review in which they have noted that some infant deaths have been linked to bumpers. The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association, however,  said correctly-used bumpers help prevent babies from getting their arms and legs stuck, as well as hitting their heads. They issued a statement urging Chicago “to reconsider all scientific data on crib bumper pad use.”

Source: moms.today.com