Crib bumpers with spikes have been found to be the cause of infant deaths and injuries in the latest years. A new study has revealed the danger of cribs to babies calling the attention of health experts and manufacturers to ban the bedding accessory.
Researchers from Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis and with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) discovered that crib bumpers are main source of harm in infants. The study slammed the previous studies stating that pillows, blankets and stuffed animals are the cause of deaths and injuries in babies.
Bradley T. Thach, MD, the senior author of the study who is also a professor emeritus of pediatrics at the School of Medicine revealed that bumpers are more dangerous than parents could ever imagine.
"Crib bumpers are killing kids. Bumpers are more dangerous than we originally thought. The infant deaths we studied could have been prevented if the cribs were empty," stated Thach.
The study exposed 23 crib-bumper deaths which were reported from 2006 through 2012. The researchers claimed that the actual number of deaths and injuries is certainly higher considering the lack of gathered data.
As presented by the authors of the study, 48 infant deaths and 146 crib bumper accidents were recorded from the year 1985 to 2012. Majority of the babies died as a result of suffocation because their noses were blocked by a bumper.
"When a baby's nose and mouth is covered by a bumper, the infant can suffocate when his or her airway becomes blocked, or from breathing oxygen-depleted air. So if bumpers had not been in the cribs, these babies would not have died," explained by one of the authors of the study N.J. Scheers, PhD.
Considering the results of the study, the researchers are asking for the authorities to act on the matter since there are no federal regulations for baby bumpers at present.
The study was reported in The Journal of Pediatrics on November 24.
