Baby Crib Bumper Pads More Harmful to Toddlers

Courtney Mills

Contributor

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The risk of accidentally becoming injured and suffocating as a result of a baby crib bumper pad appears to be much higher than was previously considered. Crib bumpers are soft pads that mothers place inside baby cribs to shield toddlers from bruises and other forms of injury, and were thought to be safe.

A recently released study by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis weighed Consumer Product Safety Commission reports of crib injury from 1985-2005. Crib bumpers accounted for at least 27 accidental deaths in the study. Routine investigation into the deaths showed that children probably suffocated once pinned between the bumper and the crib wall, or that they were strangled by a crib bumper attachment.

At that young age, children scarcely have the requisite coordination to extricate themselves once ensnared. Parents should be very mindful of this fact when installing crib bumpers for baby cribs.

For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Defective and Dangerous Products.