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Home › Articles › Sleep Issues › Safely You May Rest

Safely You May Rest

Crib Cautions and Considerations

By Lisamarie Sanders

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Don't Forget the Mattress
Buying a safe crib is a start, but you will also need a mattress. "It's important to buy a very firm mattress that is designed to fit the crib," says Dr. Bradley T. Thatch, professor of pediatrics at Washington University School of Medicine and neonatologist at St. Louis Children's Hospital. If there are gaps between the crib and mattress, a child's head could become trapped, leading to injury or possible death.

Freitag adds that crib manufacturers don't usually make mattresses, but many retail chains sell them as packages. He cautions that these packages offer good cribs with not-so-good mattresses and suggests that parents purchase the crib and mattress separately. "The firmer the mattress, the better," he says. "And get your money's worth by purchasing one that can be flipped over and used on the other side."

Bedding
The final item needed for Baby's crib is a sheet. Most parents fail to consider the sheet as a safety risk, but it was in a fitted sheet that baby Jimmy died. His mom, Marie Reen of Norwood, Mass., remembers, "I went with my daughter to get Jimmy from his nap. I walked in, and all I could see were his feet. I took him from his crib and unwrapped the sheet to find my child lifeless and blue." Jimmy had accidentally pulled off a corner of his sheet, and he became entangled in it. Unfortunately, like other children younger than age 2, he was unable to figure out how to get himself untangled. The result was death by asphyxiation.


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