Safe Bedding Practices for Babies
NEWS from CPSC
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
Office of Information and Public Affairs |
Washington, DC 20207 |
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 14, 2000
Release # 00-078
| CPSC Consumer Hotline: (800) 638-2772
CPSC Media Contact: Nychelle Fleming, (301) 504-7063
|
Retailers Join CPSC in Promoting Safe Bedding Practices for Babies -
Each Year 900 SIDS Deaths May be Caused by Soft Bedding
WASHINGTON, D.C. - To prevent deaths from soft bedding, seven major
retailers are joining the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC)
in kicking off a safety campaign promoting safe bedding practices for
babies. As many as 900 baby deaths each year attributed to Sudden Infant
Death Syndrome (SIDS) may actually be caused by suffocation in soft
bedding, such as quilts, comforters, pillows and sheepskins.
Babies "R" Us, IKEA, JCPenney, Kmart, Lands' End, Sears and
Target, which account for the majority of baby bedding sales, are making
changes to crib displays in retail stores, catalogs, advertisements and
websites. Beginning this Spring, shoppers will no longer see cribs made
up with pillows, quilts and comforters. Many retailers will be including
cautionary statements about the use of soft bedding for younger babies
in their catalogs, on signs attached to cribs, and on inserts that
accompany baby comforters and quilts. When babies are featured in crib
ads, they always will be pictured sleeping on their backs. Other
retailers are going to create bedding safety brochures for customers and
add quilt racks to their nursery product lines.
Since 1994, CPSC has warned about the danger of soft bedding to
babies under 12 months. But when consumers went to stores or browsed
through catalogs, they often got a different message. Cribs made up with
comforters, quilts and pillows may have encouraged parents to use these
items in the crib with an infant. Parents unaware of the warnings, would
not know that these items could be deadly for young babies.
"Parents and caregivers will no longer get a mixed message on how
to create a safe sleeping environment for their baby," said CPSC
Chairman Ann Brown. "Whether browsing through a catalog or floor
display, cribs will now display a safe way to put baby to sleep."
For babies under 12 months, CPSC, the American Academy of
Pediatrics and the National Institute of Child Health and Human
Development recommend the following to help reduce the risk of SIDS:
- Place baby on his/her back on a firm, tight-fitting mattress in a
crib that meets current safety standards.
- Remove pillows, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, pillow-like stuffed
toys and other pillow-like soft products from the crib.
- Consider using a sleeper as an alternative to blankets with no other
covering.
- If using a blanket, put baby with his or her feet at the foot of the
crib. Tuck a thin blanket around the crib mattress, only as far as the
baby's chest.
- Make sure your baby's head remains uncovered during sleep.
- Do not place baby on a waterbed, sofa, soft mattress, pillow or other
soft surface to sleep.
CPSC has worked with manufacturers to get warning labels on infant
pillows, and is now working for a similar warning on baby quilts and
comforters.
Consumers can also view two video news clips about this press release. The first one is about removing soft bedding (Transcript)to achieve a safe baby sleeping environment, and the second shows unsafe soft bedding examples (Transcript)that used to be displayed in retail stores. They are about 3 and 6
megabytes long, respectively, and the download time depends upon the speed of your Internet connection.