Rock-a-Bye Baby

Mommy had. A little baby. 

There he is. Fast asleep.
He's just. A little plaything.
Why not. Wake him up?
Cute. Cute. Little baby.
Little pee pee. Little toes.
Now he's comin' to me.
Crawl across. The kitchen floor.

Baby, baby, 

please let me hold him

I wanna make him 

stay up all night

~Stay Up Late 
Talking Heads

Packed somewhere in the back of my garage, behind boxes full of old baby clothes, is the crib that both of my girls used as babies.

The crib, which came to us second-hand, was top-of-the-line when it was purchased in 1987. Unfortunately, this crib does not meet federal safety standards created by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

Yes, the long arm of the federal government even reaches your baby's crib.

My question is whether or not I can sell or donate my now 27-year-old drop-side crib.

Consumer Product Safety Commission. Like the post office, the CPSC is an independent agency of the U.S. government. It was created in 1972 by the Consumer Product Safety Act (CPSA). Specifically, if the CPSC finds an unreasonable risk of injury associated with a consumer product, it can develop standards to reduce or eliminate the risk.

It's probably not a surprise that many of the products for which the CPSC has created standards are made for infants and children. In addition to cribs, the CPSC has developed standards for play yards (a/k/a playpens or pack-and-plays), car seats, high chairs, baby swings, strollers, clothing, toys, etc.

More recently, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) of 2008 amended the CPSA to provide CPSC with significant new regulatory and enforcement tools. CPSIA pays particular attention to children’s products, including cribs.

Cribs. Standards for baby cribs were first established in 1973, just a year after the creation of the CPSC. Since then, the agency has amended its standards to reduce the number of infant deaths resulting from crib design issues. In the early 1970s, before crib standards were developed, 150 to 200 babies each year died in crib-related incidents. By the year 2000, that number had decreased to about 35 per year. By 2004, that number had further decreased to 20 crib-related deaths per year.

The drop-side design is particularly troublesome because a baby could suffocate by getting his or her head trapped between the side and the mattress. Initially, the CPSC allowed retrofit kits that would immobilize the drop side, but discovered that often the retrofits were incorrectly installed and did not solve the problem. Over the course of nine years, 32 infant fatalities occurred due to entrapment in drop-side cribs.

In December 2010, the CPSC voted to approve new standards for cribs. Most of the cribs currently on the market, particularly drop-side cribs, would not meet these new standards. As of June 28, 2011, all importers, distributors, manufacturers, and retailers must offer only cribs that meet the CPSC's new and improved full-size and non-full-size crib standards. Some of the new mandatory rules for cribs included: (1) stopping the manufacture and sale of dangerous, traditional drop-side cribs; (2) strengthening mattress supports and crib slats; (3) requiring crib hardware to be more durable; and (4) making safety testing more rigorous.

Additionally, the CPSC cautions parents and caregivers not to use cribs older than 10 years or broken or modified cribs. Infants can strangle to death if their bodies pass through gaps between loose components or broken slats while their heads remain entrapped. Moreover, the CPSC does not believe that a crib currently in use can be retrofitted and tested to show compliance with the new crib standards, so retrofits no longer meet standards.

For more about the CPSC crib standards, see The New Crib Standards Questions and Answers.

The use of cribs outside the home. Childcare providers had until December 28, 2012, to provide cribs that meet the crib requirements. This includes child care centers, foster homes, churches, hospital facilities, family child care homes, and places of public accommodation, such as hotels and motels. After that date, places of public accommodation may no longer use traditional drop-side cribs or noncompliant cribs and must use cribs meeting the new federal safety standards. Parents should check that their child care provider is using a crib that meets standards.

Exceptions to this rule include in-home care in the child’s own home or care provided by the child’s relative, foster home care provided for child 24/7 that is a private residence and child care arrangement in which volunteers provide care, e.g., during church service

I volunteer in my church nursery during church services, so I paid particular attention to the application of the standards to churches. Here's the rule: If a church owns or operates a child care facility and pays a person or people to care for children, that child care center is covered by the CPSC’s crib rule. However, if the child care arrangement at a church involves parents (or others) volunteering to care for children during church service (and no one is paid to care for the children), this arrangement is not covered by the crib rule.

Pssstt ... Wanna buy a used crib? Don't do it. A consumer (parent, childcare provider or anyone else who has an old crib) should not resell, donate or give away a crib that does not meet the new crib standards, such as trying to resell the product through an online auction site or donating to a local thrift store. The CPSC recommends disassembling the crib before discarding it.

So bottom line, no matter what condition I think my old crib is in, the responsible thing to do is to put it out with the trash.

For more information on the federal requirements, check out this poster from the CPSC: A SAFER GENERATION OF CRIBS: New Federal Requirements