This is a post I wrote for our family blog months ago. Please consider one of these Breathable Bumpers for your baby. Regular bumpers are HIGHLY discouraged due to risk of suffocation. I have a close family friend that works at a children's hospital that sees deaths all of the time due to bumpers. Also, when they get old enough, the baby can step on the bumper and push themselves over the rail and out of the crib. Due to these horror stories, we originally chose to go without a bumper. You can read what pursuaded us to go with the Breathable Bumper but recently I actually heard a story of the death of a 5 month old due to his legs getting wrenched in the crib slats and as he fought to get free he got wraped up in his blanket and suffocated. There is a note about blankets in the cribs there as well. Anyway- hate to be a downer but this is why I feel pretty strongly about these bumpers. On with the original post...
A couple times now my husband and I have been rudely awakened by the baby shrieking. Upon investigation we find that little baby Zach's leg has found it's way between two slats in the crib and has gotten wrenched the wrong way. Poor little guy is scared and confused.
As you can imagine, this is very upsetting to us so we have gone into solution mode. Can't put the regular crib bumper in yet as there is still a suffocation risk. Other solutions haven't sit right with us because we are paranoid. We decided on this mesh breathable bumper. Husband tested it out. It passed.
Yes, our job as parents is to minimize risks...that means safe sleep habits all the way around...breathable bumpers, no blankets, no stuffed toys, mobiles placed safely out of reach (if at all), back-to-sleep (while lacking head control or ability to roll), appropriate clothing, hard mattress with snug fitted sheet...my hang up is with co-sleeping. Yes, it can be done safely but more often than not, it is done recklessly.
ReplyDelete