apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

what happened to all of the comments on the previous bumper post you link to? All 28 have disappeared....

(and in answer to your question -- it looks as if babies can still get their heads caught between the bumper and the crib)

I have the breathable bumper, which is way higher than this one and my baby still puts his arms through the bars, so this one would not stop that. And he bangs his head when he is crawling around in his crib or moving around, which this low bumper would also not prevent. The breathable bumper provides a little cushion for that.

I suppose it could be useful for a baby who is only rolling around and not crawling yet, but that would make it useful for about a month or 2....not worth the $60 IMO.

Cute designs though.

Really don't understand why bumpers are used at all -- we've had 2 extremely wiggly kids in cribs without bumpers -- they learn not to hit their heads against the bars (it is impossible for them to hurt themselves as they cannot create enough force in such a small space to do so) and how to extricate their hands or feet if they happen stick them through the bars. Babies learn quickly -- no more than a couple of weeks of irritation (tops) before they figure it out.

Bumpers serve no purpose -- they are an (expensive) unnecessary hazard.

I have a small European crib (stokke) and a large American baby. We have used the crib bumper because he cries without it. He actually does hit his head when he sleep across the shortest length of the crib. Bumpers have a purpose if you have a small crib. He is fine with the bumper.

I don't know Monika, my son tries to stand in his crib all the time and falls. Sometimes I'm surprised it doesn't hurt, although he did hurt himself slightly once or twice. Still safer though to have no bumper or a breathable one, IMO.

monika1 - I just checked the link to the previous bumper post and I see all the comments so it may have been related to a temporary problem we were having with the comment function site-wide a few days ago.

Thanks for passing on all your good information on crib safety.

Carrie

Honest, I did not invent the part about babies not being able to seriously hurt themselves in a crib -- here is the direct quote from the "Policy Statement for Bumper Pads in Cribs" from Health Canada (as official as a Canadian source gets):

"It must also be noted that, for the most part, infants do not sustain major injuries from banging their heads against the sides of their cribs because they are incapable of generating enough force to seriously injure themselves through head banging. The frontal bone, which is the part of the head most frequently struck during crib head banging, is the thickest bone in the body and therefore, is capable of absorbing the shock associated with this type of behaviour.

It should also be noted that it remains possible for an infant to entrap his or her limbs over or under the bumper pads and that infant limb entrapment [between the slats of a crib], in the vast majority of cases, results in no injury or minor injury, such as bruising."

http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/cps-spc/legislation/pol/bumper-bordure-eng.php

Further, the 2007 study of crib bumpers, "Deaths and Injuries Attributed to Infant Crib Bumper Pads" Thach, et al,

http://www.sidsalliance.org/PDFs/BumperArticle.pdf

looked at data bases to see if they could find whether NOT having bumper pads in cribs resulted in injuries or death, and they could find none.

And funny thing, but we too have a small European crib. And for a time, our son too, cried when we put him in because he had been banging his head against the top end rails, as well as sticking his hands and feet out, and getting stuck. We tried to teach him how to better position himself so that he didn't bang himself, and how to wiggle his limbs free. My motherhood mantra is "this too shall pass", and sure enough it did -- it only lasted 2 or 3 weeks. Babies are smart.