Maryland Bans Crib Bumper Pads
By: Jessica Reyes
Updated: January 1, 2013
HAGERSTOWN, MD - When it comes to keeping your baby safe many parents think placing soft objects in the crib will keep them from getting hurt.
"New parents want all the new soft cuddly things in the bed with their child," says Christy Lewis at The Learning Center. "But that's actually dangerous."
After an 18 month investigation, Maryland State Officials have decided to ban crib bumper pads.
"It's just very easy to an infant to suffocate if there are lots of things in the crib that they could lay on top of," says Lewis. "We practice back to sleep, sleep on their backs is safer, it's a safer position."
It's something some daycare centers already practice.
"In childhood centers we never used the bumper pads because of the strangulation hazard," says Lewis.
Although parents may like to decorate a baby's room, experts say when it comes to the crib, the simpler the better.
"Mattresses with tight fitted mattress sheets so that they're not able to be pulled off or not, other soft bedding items placed in the cribs with the infants when they are sleeping," adds Lewis.
Daycare officials say that baby's more than a year old should not be in cribs. They say they can use the bumper pads to climb out and fall.
"By the time the infant is 12 months old they are going to be mobility moving around in that bed and standing up and trying to figure out ways to get out of it," says Lewis. "So by that time they are ready to move to a cot in a child center or a toddler bed at home."
The ban will take effect June 21, 2013.
"New parents want all the new soft cuddly things in the bed with their child," says Christy Lewis at The Learning Center. "But that's actually dangerous."
After an 18 month investigation, Maryland State Officials have decided to ban crib bumper pads.
"It's just very easy to an infant to suffocate if there are lots of things in the crib that they could lay on top of," says Lewis. "We practice back to sleep, sleep on their backs is safer, it's a safer position."
It's something some daycare centers already practice.
"In childhood centers we never used the bumper pads because of the strangulation hazard," says Lewis.
Although parents may like to decorate a baby's room, experts say when it comes to the crib, the simpler the better.
"Mattresses with tight fitted mattress sheets so that they're not able to be pulled off or not, other soft bedding items placed in the cribs with the infants when they are sleeping," adds Lewis.
Daycare officials say that baby's more than a year old should not be in cribs. They say they can use the bumper pads to climb out and fall.
"By the time the infant is 12 months old they are going to be mobility moving around in that bed and standing up and trying to figure out ways to get out of it," says Lewis. "So by that time they are ready to move to a cot in a child center or a toddler bed at home."
The ban will take effect June 21, 2013.
