I thought the crib deaths were atributed to parents putting the sliding side in upside down? It didn't go in properly and the baby was able to push it out of the track and catch his head in between the rail and side. If it was installed properly, the baby couldn't push it out.

The Chicago Trib article says "The drop rails in those deaths had been installed upside down. But the agency also found two incidents in which correctly installed drop rails failed to work properly."

If you're doing a story on the CPSC, I hope that you make sure to tell the other side -- how much goes into investigating products and determining when a recall is appropriate. The CPSC doesn't simply have a blank check to do whatever it wants to -- it has very specific admin. procedures it needs to follow to force a recall. And working with a product manufacturer for a voluntary recall can take time, too.

(and no, I don't work for the CPSC. But I had the opportunity a few years back to become very familiar with their regs and procedures, and from what I can tell, it's a hard-working agency that takes product safety very, very seriously).

I am not an engineer, and I obviously have not been shopping for a crib anytime recently. Can someone explain to me the purpose of the "drop rail" and why you would want one, as opposed to a fixed rail?

"Can someone explain to me the purpose of the "drop rail" and why you would want one, as opposed to a fixed rail?"

If it is what I think it is, it is so one side drops so shorter people can reach in and either get the baby or put the baby down.

My wife can't reach our child without lowering the side of the crib. I, however, can.

A sad point that I saw on the news last night was the CPSC had been trying unsuccessfully for months to be able to view the crib that caused the first child's death. They needed to be able to test it and determine if there was a manufacturer error or human error. They were unable to access the crib as it was held by the families lawyer as they were suing the company that made the crib. In the mean time another child this past spring...

If it is a common occurence to install the rails improperly which can result in the deaths of our children - then the cribs need to come fully assembled from the manufacturer. Some of the instructions that come with furniture or appliances require you to be a rocket scientist to figure out - my favorite thing now is manufactures like to save on printing in 8 million languages by only using pictures. Pictures do not always equal a thousand words.

Posted by Anonymous @ September 25, 2007 10:48 AM

"If it is what I think it is, it is so one side drops so shorter people can reach in and either get the baby or put the baby down.

"My wife can't reach our child without lowering the side of the crib. I, however, can."

Hmm.

My entire family is pretty short (my mother and sisters are between 4'8 and 5'2"), and I still have never seen one of these. The crib which I have (the same as my parents used) is a fixed wooden affair with no moving parts. It doesn't look any lower to the ground than in the photos provided with the article, but it has never been a problem.

I was thinking (from the picture at least) that perhaps it was designed to be dissassembled and portable. If it is how you suggest, why not simply design to be short person friendly from the outset instead of having moving parts?

I am not aware of any cribs which do not have a sliding rail and have never seen ones without this device. It's standard on all the cribs we looked at when we bought our crib. I think there's a confusion about what it does because I saw no options to purchase a crib without a sliding rail. It's the way to get the baby in and out without having to lift them over your head each time.

Reply to: 12:01 PM

We bought our daughter's crib in 2003, and it does not have a drop rail. We looked at plenty that were similar. Actually, everyone I know with a baby or toddler has one without the drop rail.

If it is how you suggest, why not simply design to be short person friendly from the outset instead of having moving parts?

Posted by: David s | September 25, 2007 11:52 AM

because the whole point is that the rail needs to be a certain height in order to keep a standing 6 - 12 month old IN the crab, but when a short person is putting a sleeping child in the crib, the rail is too high to clear the child's legs and feet without holding him or her in an ackward position away from the body. I'm with anon at 12:01, I haven't seen a crib in a store or a home in the last ten years that didn't have the drop rail. I can't imagine how a grandmother or older person would get a child into the crib safely without it.

With personal experience having put one of these cribs together, it is unfortunately very easy to put the pieces together "upside down." As I put the first side of the rail together, I put it in the wrong way. I looked at the picture closer and realized that it was in backwards (it's an s-shaped piece, so it can be easy to do it backwards), so I went back and fixed it. Ours is otherwise in working order.

All the same, the craftsmanship on these cribs is not of the highest quality. But it is more than sufficient for what we need. We'll be keeping a close eye on ours, though.

Posted by MN @ September 25, 2007 12:24 PM:

"because the whole point is that the rail needs to be a certain height in order to keep a standing 6 - 12 month old IN the crab, but when a short person is putting a sleeping child in the crib, the rail is too high to clear the child's legs and feet without holding him or her in an ackward position away from the body. I'm with anon at 12:01, I haven't seen a crib in a store or a home in the last ten years that didn't have the drop rail. I can't imagine how a grandmother or older person would get a child into the crib safely without it."

I wish I could draw the crib in question to explain. The floor (bed?) of the crib is sufficiently low to the ground that even with the bar height you can reach in and pick up a child. I would say the entire aparatus is probably about 3.5' tall. My mother, who is 4'8", had no difficulty.

I do see the point about an elderly or frail person, and how a drop rail would assist. My Grandmother, and an elderly family friend who often child sat for my mother both were quite hale, and my own mother seems to still have no difficulty.

As a thought, it might be safer to find a way to raise the base of the crib rather than lower the side. Perhaps in the same manner as a barber's chair.

As a thought, it might be safer to find a way to raise the base of the crib rather than lower the side. Perhaps in the same manner as a barber's chair.

Posted by: David S | September 25, 2007 01:43 PM

Not quite a barber chair, but the crib i just purchased has 4 different base settings, the highest of course is for infants (no drop rail. no need).

To 12:01 PM

We bought our crib in 2006 and it does not have a drop down. It is a big, bulky, solid wood crib that isn't portable. But I think you are right in that most of the cribs that are out there now have some sort of drop down system. Even when we bought ours, the sales woman kept reminding us that it did not have the drop down. We kept pointing out the fact that my husband and I are both 6 feet tall and don't really need the drop down.

Note to DandyLion regarding his post on onbalance - There are many people who are COBOL programmers and proud of it. Your comment was extremely insulting.

Stuff like this makes me so glad to live in a country that has the resources to manage things like this albeit imperfectly. Think of all the people in the world who have no advocate and no recourse when things like this go down.

Posted by Moxiemom @ September 25, 2007 03:38 PM:

"Stuff like this makes me so glad to live in a country that has the resources to manage things like this albeit imperfectly. Think of all the people in the world who have no advocate and no recourse when things like this go down."

There could be something to be said for these things being problems of our own creation. You don't need an advocate for "crib malfunction" if you are a craftsman down the street made it.

I do not mean to imply we should go back to a labor based local enconomy, just that many of the people of the world who have no advocate also do not necessarily need one because they are not getting their goods from large, impersonal companies.

Though the state of affairs in China, to my understanding, definately matches your advocate-less consumer image.

NewSAHM said "from what I can tell, it's a hard-working agency that takes product safety very, very seriously"

Very true! But they are constrained by being chronically underfunded, losing 15% of their staff since 2002, and having their hands tied by a buisness friendly administration (just look at where the head of compliance worked before coming to CPSC, and how he got his job).

(and yes, I did work for the CPSC for a number of years - I'm one of those 15%)

There seems to be a lot of cunfusion on the two different types of cribs. Well, since I have a 2 year old and a 1 year old and have one of each type of cribs I can vouch for the fact that both types are out there and can be readily purchased at any baby store. Our drop rail crib was bought in 2004 when our first was born. When our second was on the way we bought a fixed rail one to move him into when the baby was born. He was one and a half at the time so we wanted one that also converted to a toddler bed. The fixed rail types can nore readily do that.

The drop rail cribs are very necessary for some because once a baby can pull themselves up you have to drop the crib base to the lowest setting possible. Otherwise they can easily pull themselves out of the crib. Thereofre, for shorter people or people with disabilities it is necessary to lower the crib rail to have access to your child.

Also, on a side note...People who are using the same crib their parents used should really think twice. Check the CSPC website for currentl standards. Many older cribs have slats that are too far part and kids can wiggle their bodies through the slats. When this happens, unfortunately, their head cannot fit through and it can cause severe inhury or death. I think the current standard is that the slats should be no more than width of the base of a coke can.

I have been a subscriber to the CPSC website for a few years and have recieved countless emails warning me about the cribs in the past few years. I also get an email with a link to photos and descriptions of ALL recalled products and warnings about fatal incidents with products not yet recalled. I have found it very helpful and I urge everyone with children to sign up.

On another note- Our crib has adjustable mattress heights and a drop rail. I have only used the drop rail a few times. That being said, this is not a debate about the usefullness of drop rails but about a faulty product that has caused the deaths of several children. The company that sold them should be held responsible for not addressing the problem immediately after 1 child was injured.

Isn't the obvious solution to just finally do away with the eupheistic "crib" idea and just go whole hog with a "cage"?

Honestly, I can't see from the article how the crib was faulty in the least. Did you guys read further on how included in this "faulty crib that caused a death" category was a broken crib that the parents patched with duct tape? DUCT TAPE!!! The child suffocated, and this is somehow being blamed on the manufacturer ... ??????

Although I understand that sometimes putting things together is confusing, that's really what the directions are for. I hate to see so many people jumping on the bandwagon of bashing Simplicity/Graco when they are not the ones who put the crib together wrong and chose to ignore the directions and/or not call the toll-free number that comes with basically any new product like that, if they had questions.

CPSC regulation allow them to consider "forseeable misuse" when deal with products. For example, its forseeable that parents will allow a 6 year old child to drive a 450cc ATV (it happens all the time). Standing on the top rung of a stepladder is also a forseeable missuse, despite all the warnings against it (hence why there are warnings against it). Misreading instruction, failure to follow misleading or difficult to understand instructions is forseeable. When working with human behaviour, you generally assume if it can be done, someone will, and good product design should take that into account. For example, parts should only be allowed to install one way, especially if installing them the wrong way could cause a major failure. The worst thing about these types of failures is that most people who do it wrong believe it is correct.

I'm glad you are responsible enough to always call when you don't understand something, and I am glad you have never put something together wrong (although, chances are if you did, and it still appeared to work, you would never know). Since you are in school, wander over to the psych department and see if they offer a course in consumer behaviour (Human Factors and Engineering Psychology are two common name).

My understanding of crib design is two-fold. The mattress is placed at the highest point when the baby is newborn and is lowered incrementally. This is in sync with the baby's ability to stand and try to climb out.

As the mattress gets lower it becomes increasingly more difficult to pick up the baby or even put him/her in the crib unless you can lower the side. I've never seen a crib that did not have one side that went up and down.

"For example, parts should only be allowed to install one way, especially if installing them the wrong way could cause a major failure. The worst thing about these types of failures is that most people who do it wrong believe it is correct."

I agree that is a nice feature (Fisher Price does that a lot, rendering their assembly completely idiot-proof). But it is not a requirement, and I personally would find it a little bit insulting if the government decided to MAKE it one (not that they would, as it would probably cause chaos in the mechanical engineering world).

Just curious, would "forseeable misuse" count the duct tape thing? And do you really think that people honestly thought about their assembly or, like my cousin, simply cracked open a beer and had half an eye on his crib assembly and half an eye on the TV?