Posted on 06/28/2011 8:33:47 AM PDT by Dr. Scarpetta
Beginning today, a new generation of cribs, designed to be safer, will be the only ones approved for sale in stores, online, and even at neighborhood yard sales.
Ushering in one of the most significant changes in child safety in decades, the rule taking effect this week bans the manufacture, sale and resale of drop-side cribs.
Drop-sides have a side rail that can be raised and lowered to allow parents to more easily place or lift a baby, but they have been blamed in the deaths of several dozen children.
Another significant part of the new federal standard mandates more rigorous safety tests for childrens cribs before they hit the market.
Drop-side cribs have been around for decades. But they have increasingly come under scrutiny in recent years because of malfunctioning hardware, sometimes cheaper plastics or assembly problems that can lead to the drop-side rail partially detaching.
That can create a dangerous V-like gap with the mattress in which a baby can get caught and suffocate.
Drop-sides are blamed in the deaths of more than 30 infants and toddlers since 2000 and suspected in about a dozen other infant fatalities. Since 2007, more than 9 million drop-sides have been recalled including cribs from Evenflo and Pottery Barn Kids.
The end of drop-side cribs marks a long-awaited day for Susan Cirigliano, who lost her 6-month-old son, Bobby, when his drop-side slid off the tracks in 2004, trapping his head and neck between the mattress and the malfunctioning side rail.
He suffocated.
While drop-side cribs will no longer be made or sold, they are still being used in homes across the nation.
The industry says drop-sides that havent been recalled can be used safely as long as they are properly assembled and maintained to the manufacturers instructions.
(Excerpt) Read more at lehighvalleylive.com ...
Yes, how will they enforce the yard sale provision...
Ping
Big brother hates private resale because they don't get their cut (sales tax)
I wonder if any children are going to die because the parents drop them trying to haul them over the top of a crib they can’t let down.
More likely, babies will die when the parents figure out ways to put the mattress closer to the top of the railings, so they can lift the kids out.
I had a drop-down crib, and I maintained it, and it never malfunctioned.
Horrible thought, but I'm sure you're right. Ever since the govt. said tots had to go in the back seat, some parents forgot they were there and left them in the heat.
I have one at my house as well. I asked my husband how a grandmother of my size (5’1”)was expected to put a sleeping one year old into the crib with a set-in-place side. At this age the mattress is at the lowest level. His answer was “well you just reach over and drop him in”. Just another unintended consequence I guess.
A few thoughts. We have a drop side crib with flimsy plastic ‘stays’ for the rail. They often fail and would drop the rail about a foot. The only entrapment was with their legs as it usually occured when one was standing and leaning on the rail. I just consider the crib a poc, not a danger.
I can’t imagine how a baby’s head could be pushed down or in between the rail and matress to cause suffocation. Sounds like BS and tort lawyers blaming SIDs on a known ‘faulty’ piece of the crib.
We’re going to be selling our poc crib soon so I am worried about the civil liability angle. I plan to address this with two well-placed deck screws.
so no more “here take my old one” now you have to buy a new one.
what about the craftman custome order types?
And what if you just give a crib away? Are you allowed to do that?
sales.
follow the money.
by mandating new sales the manufacturers have a constant market, government has a flow of sales taxes, and chinese slaves have work...
Probably only until you are discovered.
Seriously, though - I like the idea of installing two obvious brass screws (prettier than deck screws). Point them out to the buyer, tell him that the choice is his, and that this makes your used crib better than the new (zero decision) crib.
Wickard v. Filburn, 317 U.S. 111 (1942), dealt with the power of the federal government to regulate interstate economic activity. A farmer, Roscoe Filburn, was growing wheat for on-farm consumption. The U.S. government established limits on wheat production based on acreage owned by a farmer, in order to drive up wheat prices during the Great Depression, and Filburn was growing more than the limits permitted. Filburn was ordered to destroy his crops and pay a fine, even though he was producing the excess wheat for his own use and had no intention of selling it.
The Supreme Court, interpreting the United States Constitution's Commerce Clause under Article 1 Section 8 decided that, because Filburn's wheat growing activities reduced the amount of wheat he would buy for chicken feed on the open market, and because wheat was traded nationally, Filburn's production of more wheat than he was allotted was affecting interstate commerce, and so could be regulated by the federal government.
How did the USA ever survive the First Great Depression, WWII, rebuild Europe, win the Cold War, become the world’s economic powerhouse and put a man on the moon using slide rules and vacuum tubes when generations of uncaring parents put their babies to sleep in these killing machines?
It’s a wonder and a miracle that mankind survived this long without the federal government to tell us when to put helmets on, where to sleep, what to eat and how to move from place to place!
I raised two children and working on three grand daughters never once having a problem with a drop-side crib (the girls have already graduated to big-girl beds). This country is filled with p*ssies.
“Yes, how will they enforce the yard sale provision... “
SWAT.
Sell it as "collectible memorabilia".
I have a drop side crib, using it right now for my 6 week old daughter. It has never malfunctioned. I will continue to use it until she is old enough for a toddler bed. Then I will either convert it into a toddler bed, or convert it into a full size headboard for my son and my daughter can move into his old toddler bed. The government can butt the hell out!
When I was born, we were so poor we didn’t have a crib. They put me in a DRAWER!
And when I cried too much they just shoved the drawer back into the dresser.
JUST KIDDING about shoving the drawer into the dresser.
I WAS placed in a drawer, however, as a newborn.
THERE ARE MORE BABIES KILLED BY ‘BOYFRIENDS’ THAN BY CRIBS. WHEN is NannyState going to address THAT issue?
I guess I will pull all the banned stuff out of the attic for the "memorabilia" sale. If I am going to get arrested, I will go big.
Yep along with all of the toys nd clothjing that the child safety law imposed earlier this year that can’t be resold anymore without the safety testing tag from the labs.Fine is upwards of $100,000.
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