Bumper Ban: Baby Crib Bumper Pad Sales Terminated in Chicago (10/11)

The City of Chicago has banned the sale of crib bumper pads due to the concern that the products pose suffocation risks to babies. According to the Chicago Tribune, Chicago is the first municipality in the U.S. to ban the sale of this popular nursery product.

"If we were to wait for federal regulators, it probably would never get done," Ald. James Balcer said in a Chicago Tribune interview. "We have a responsibility here as government to address issues like this."

To decrease the risk of SIDS, suffocation and entrapment, the American Association of Pediatrics recommends placing your infant on his or her back to sleep and using a firm crib mattress that is free of pillows, quilts, comforters, sheepskins, bumper pads, and stuffed toys that can cause your baby to suffocate. The AAP notes that research has not shown when it’s safe to have these objects in the crib. But most experts agree that after 12 months of age these objects pose little risk to healthy babies.

Also remember never to use a drop-sided cribs with a baby of any age. More than 30 children are documented to have died from entrapment in these cribs. The federal government has banned the purchase or sale, even at yard sales, of this piece of infant furniture.