The baby products industry is alive and booming. There’s no shortage of items marketed to new parents in the hopes they will buy it for their new bundles of joy. But not every product out there is necessary. Hello, baby wipes warmer! Even worse than that though, not every product is safe. Consumer Reports has issued a warning for products you should NEVER buy or use for your baby. Before you go shopping for your baby’s nursery, you need to read this!
- Drop-side cribs
These are frightfully dangerous. The moveable drop side can drop, suffocate or strangle your baby. Instead, go for a crib with fixed sides that is free of designs or only features minimal designs. Because of the dangers of drop-side cribs, new restrictions went into place so make sure to purchase a model that was manufactured after June 2011. Safety experts are pleading with parents to never use cribs over 10 years old because so many safety improvements have been made over this time. If you must use a drop-side crib, call the manufacturer and ask for a kit to help you immobilize it to prevent any accidents from occurring.
- Crib bumpers
In our overly-safe society, someone decided to make a product that would keep babies from hitting their heads on the crib slats. But it turns out that this only causes worse problems. These are a major suffocation hazard and could be responsible for SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome). The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) urges parents never to use this dangerous product. The only thing they recommend in your baby’s crib is a mattress with a fitted sheet and that is it. And yes, that means no sleep positioners or blankets and pillows either for the very same reasons. If you worry about your baby getting cold, make sure to dress him in footed pajamas.
- Changing tables with less than four sides
While you should never leave a child unattended on a changing table, using one that has less than four sides is a huge danger. Your child is vulnerable to head injuries and other severe injuries caused from falls. Changing your child on a mat on the floor is the safest thing you can do, but if you must have a changing station in your nursery, you should get one that has four sides to help keep your child from rolling off of it.
- Toppling furniture
The CPSC reported close to 200 deaths of children 5 and younger between 2000 and 2008 due to unsecured furniture. And it’s not just limited to your nursery. Before your child can even crawl, make sure you secure any top-heavy furniture. Dressers, nightstands, bookcases, TV stands and any other furniture that could topple over if a child attempted to climb it. When you buy furniture new, it should come with a bracket that you can use to help mount it to the wall. If you need to secure existing furniture, go to your home repair store and ask them to point you to the right hardware for the job.
- Infant bath seats
Bath seats are one of the most dangerous products of all. It’s not any safer with one. In fact, it’s much more risky. These things can tip over, leading your baby to drown. Big bathtubs can be difficult to wash small babies in so the experts say one thing that IS good to buy is a hard plastic baby bathtub. Of course wherever you bathe your baby, you should NEVER ever leave your baby unattended in the tub. Always keep one hand on your baby the entire time in the tub.
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