Researchers demonstrate the danger of traditional bumpers. Parents should be questioning whether bumper pads are worth putting their baby's life at risk.
Once seen as a must-have item to complete any nursery, crib bumpers have come under scrutinty by health professionals. Bumpers have cost many families the life of their baby. To stir the pot even more, research is finding that bumpers don't necessarily prevent minor injuiries. The reality is that minor injuries, like contusions and stuck limbs, are happening even when crib bumpers are being used.
After spending the past week investigating the literature and looking at crib bumpers currently on the market, I am further assured that my decision to not use bumpers was the safest option for my children. In nosing around, what really got my goat was the number of popular crib bumper products (to mention a few names - Circo, Amy Coe, Koala Baby, Nava's Designs, Lambs' and Ivy) don't even meet basic industry standards.
I knew a lot of this information before I started writing the series. However, the statistics weren't the part that hit the point home for me. It was the demonstration photographs of how infants were found dead in their cribs that tore my heart from my chest. Even though dolls were used, the pictures of babies with crib bumper ties wrapped tightly around their thin necks or pinned under the crib bumper unable to free themselves gave chilling testimony to the reality of the danger of crib bumpers. Independent researchers are chiming in with the likes of the American Academy of Pediatrics, Health Canada, and the SIDS alliance to say that crib bumpers pose a clear danger to babies and should not be used in cribs. Parents who ignore the warning should, at the least, be choosy about the bumpers they put in their child's crib.
