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The only time a bumper is unsafe is if it is overstuffed or floppy. A firm, flat bumper tied on to the crib properly is perfectly fine to use. If the bumper is too thin to stand up by itself, or so puffy that it looks and feels like a down bolster then there is a possible hazard. My parents have been manufacturing crib bedding for almost 30 years without one single safety issue. If made and used correctly, bumpers are safe!

I like this look.

Actually, most child safety orgs say using crib bumpers (the traditional way) is unsafe - including American Academy of Pediatrics, Health Canada, National Center for Health and Safety in Child Care, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the First Candle/National SIDS Alliance.

The major reason they are recommended against is because there is a suffocation/SIDS risk. The only type of bumper that does not contribute a risk of SIDS is breathable mesh bumpers (which are not usually very attractive). Once the baby outgrows the age-based risk of SIDS, the bumpers become hazardous for another reason - they can use it as a foothold to climb out of the crib.

I think bumper-free cribs are perfectly attractive, but this outside the crib option is a cute alternative to a crib skirt (unless you have a dropside crib - which is also starting to be considered a safety risk).

My son chewed on the top crib rails when he started teething so I tied it to the top part of the crib and it stopped my little beaver immediately. Now that he likes to jump and bounce around the crib, a little extra padding at head height is a good thing.

Ugh. This looks like a mistake, not a clever solution.

And when the baby grows and the matress needs to be dropped down, you've got the same SIDS/foothold issues whether the bumper is inside or outside the rails.

I still like the idea of using the bumper to make a pad for the fireplace like in this earlier post. Or to pad a sharp corner on a table or something.

And you can always use it as decoration on the windows . . .

Or you could just buy crib sheets separately. Then you're not paying for something you might not want to use.

The bedding set I found was exactly what I was looking for, and they didn't sell the pieces separately (other than extra crib sheets). But in order to get the crib skirt, changing pad cover, diaper stacker, etc., I had to buy the whole deal, bumper included. It's incredibly pillow-y, so it lives in a closet. I was thinking of making some throw pillows from it, or possibly a big floor pillow. Any other ideas?

This doesn't look too bad---kind of like an upholstered bed. But currently our crib mattress is in the lowest position, so this wouldn't work anymore.

i like it. our crib has the changing table attached to the side so it wont work for our current one. but i am prego again perhaps the handme down crib were getting will work with this application of the bumper!!!!

I think it is trying too hard.

We need to get over the cute baby bedding obsession (although retailers don't want us to). There are other ways of putting together a nursery than decorating with expensive sheet sets -- it is all a marketing ploy to get us to buy products we really don't need.


I agree with with everything robinm wrote, and have to disagree with Mary Peyton very strongly -- the most recent exhaustive study on crib bumpers stated definitively that there were NO safe crib bumpers, and really no way to make crib bumpers safe.

I like it a lot, nice idea.
thx!