Crib Bumper Corruption: Where is the Accountability?
Tuesday, January 4th, 2011In recent months, more and more information has been coming out about the unsafe nature of traditional crib bumpers. Something most first time parents are roped into because of the cute factor when shopping for matching nursery decorations and crib bedding sets.
The problem is, there is no one standing in Babies R Us, and all these other baby retail chain stores warning mothers about these crib bumpers, and why they should not be using them in their cribs. No safety warnings on the packaging, no warnings in the stores or near the displays, and the crib and crib bedding companies are not going out of their way to say they shouldn’t be used in a crib with a baby.
Why? Because the money would come out of their pockets. Crib bumpers, and crib bedding is an annual million dollar industry in which hundreds of thousands of new parents are roped in to buy this product that could, and very well may kill their child.
It hasn’t been until recently that major news organizations are starting to pick up on stories of children killed by crib bumpers, and report it on a national scale. In December The Chicago Tribune published a expose piece on the Hidden Hazards of Crib Bumpers which made a huge splash onto the internet.
On what would become the worst night of his life, Kyle Maxwell fed his son, Preston, a bottle and rocked the 7-week-old baby to sleep. He put Preston in his crib, took a shower and went to bed.
The next morning, Kyle woke up feeling panicked. Preston wasn’t crying or cooing from his crib across the hall. Kyle jumped out of bed and ran the few steps to the baby’s room.
“That’s where the world turned upside down,” he said.
Preston was lying face down in his crib with his nose pressed between the mattress and crib bumper pad. Kyle screamed for his wife, Laura.
“There’s no life in him,” he remembers telling her, as she sobbed hysterically, holding their son eight months ago.
Preston’s autopsy report said he suffocated after his face became wedged between the mattress and bumper pad, which wraps around the inside of a crib and ties to crib slats.
Unfortunately for American parents, this happens too often, and is too under reported. But is corporate greed and corruption keeping our babies in danger?
Besides Mission (which stands for Mothers Investigating Safe Sleeping Options for Newborns) there aren’t many organizations or advocates involves in spreading the message of the serious death danger crib bumpers pose to babies.
When is the greed going to stop, and when are the government agencies going to get involved like they did with the big recalls of drop side cribs. A hand full of deaths, and the entire product has banned in the United States. When will we see the same treatment for crib bumpers? How many more babies have to lose their lives before there is a mass recall, and ban?
Incoming search terms for the article:
- crib bumper blog
- go mama go bedding
- how many babies are killed by crib bumpers?
- is there any product similar to wonder bumpers
- Laura and Kyle maxwell
- babies r us bans crib bumpers
- misson moms investigating safe sleep
- Mothers Investigating Safe Sleep Options for Newborns
- nursery bedding without bumper
- should bumpers be used in cribs?
