New Crib Safety Standards Implemented, and A Circumcision Rant

By Kimberly Mirando

(LEGAFI) -- Consumers looking to buy new baby cribs may notice something different: they will no longer be able to purchase cribs with drop-down side rails.

After more than 30 infant and toddler deaths and millions of crib recalls in the past decade, the government has outlawed drop-side cribs and implemented new safety standards aimed at preventing child injury or death.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission voted that as of June 28, 2011, anyone that manufactures or sells baby cribs must meet the new safety standards. Federal mandatory crib standards had not been updated in nearly 30 years and the new rule will usher in a safer generation of cribs. These mandatory standards will:

1) stop the manufacture and sale of dangerous, traditional drop-side cribs;

2) make mattress supports stronger;

3) improve slat strength,

4) make crib hardware more durable; and

5) make safety testing more rigorous.

Only new, safer cribs will be available for consumer purchase, but the Commission has also voted to extend the length of time that short-term crib rental companies have to comply with the new mandatory standards for full-size and non-full-size baby cribs. This extension gives crib rental companies until December 28, 2012 to update their inventory with compliant cribs, which is the same deadline for the public accommodation facilities that these companies serve. Childcare facilities and places of public accommodation, such as hotels and motels, also have until December 18 to meet the new crib standards.

Anyone who fails to meet the new crib safety standards will be likely be subject to consumer class action lawsuits.

Read it yourself HERE.

Now, I posted this for two reasons.  One, to inform you of the law regarding drop-side cribs in the US.  If you want to read the whole story, it's HERE.  (BTW, we had two of these cribs for our twins, and they were horrible.  We DID intend to use it as co-sleeping was something that naturally occurred, not something we'd planned, and we secured the drop side with metal brackets and screws so the side no longer moves what so ever.  Even though they are still legal for use in Canada, our daughter will not be sleeping in it until she is old enough to use it as a daybed...without the drop side on it.)

The second reason I posted this was out of confusion, really.  How is it that in the "last decade" there have been "30 infant and toddler deaths" from the use of these drop-side cribs, and they're being made illegal...BUT, every year, upwards of 200 infants die due to LEGAL routine infant circumcision, and no one bats an eye?  Is it just me, or is that bad math?  It seems to me that children are MORE safe in a drop-side crib than they are when they are circumcised.  And clearly they aren't safe in a drop-side crib.  It just confuses me and makes me wonder where the logic is.  *Banging head on desk*