Is Your Baby Bedding Trustworthy?
Over 6000 cases of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) are reported each year, and more than 900 of these are due to babies’ soft baby crib bedding. So how can you be sure that any bedding bought for your baby will be safe?
It’s never a good idea to lay an infant on her stomach, because not being able to fully lift her head yet, she might actually soffucate with her face pressed on the bed. Despite being comfortable for babies, soft mattresses may be dangerous for little ones. They might not have the strength to roll over to recover from the dangerous position and the fatal accidents might happen if no one is around to take good care of the little one and as infants are too weak, when their heads are being placed on the soft mattress.
Parents should make it a priority to test a baby’s bedding by applying some weight to it. If it depresses under medium pressure, pass on it as it could lead to an accident. The strenght of the mattress can be assessed by pressing one hand against the mattress with the resisting force. This is a simple way to assess a mattress. The higher the resistance rating of your mattress is, the higher the quality.
Bumper pads in baby cribs pose a threat of suffocation. There is no doubt that the colors and designs are attractive but many recommend removing them from the crib as an infant who falls asleep with their tiny mouth up against the padding will have their movement and breathing restricted and can potentially suffocate.
Parents should take extra care for infants, as during this time infants are very weak. Although there are still some that say bumper pads are okay if you buy the firmer ones, the majority opinion is to remove them completely. There have been reports of suffocation with the baby pressed between the bumbers and another object in the crib, and also of strangulation by the strings of the bumper pads.
According to some research, mattress contains some toxic gases which may be harmful to baby’s health. Hazardous chemical, fire retardant compounds (phosphorous and arsenic) have been found in mattresses. These chemicals can react with others and release poisonous gases; if an infant breathes too much of these, he can die while sleeping in his crib.
Scientists have since found, however, that a frequently occurring fungus in baby bedding may be one of the reactants which is an aid in releasing these toxic fumes. Parents are thus urged not to use old nursery and crib bedding which has been used before, as it may contain fungus after a long period of time. Babies crib bedding should not be reused from one baby to another because old bedding can carry fungus. Besides, new baby nursery bedding will be prettier and more personalized than an old, reused one anyway.
In addition, there is some concern about synthetic fabric in baby bedding sets. While there is no solid proof that synthetic fabrics are harmful to a baby, you may want to stick to natural fibers. There are plenty of stylish cotton nursery bedding sets available (one of my favorites is the Maya baby crib bedding set), so there is no need to sacrifice style for safety.
Parents should be able to guage the safety of their baby’s bedding if they consider all these factors. If not, purchase a new, safe bedding option so that your baby can sleep safely and you can sleep without worries.
This entry was posted on Tuesday, May 26th, 2009 at 4:05 am and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.