How To Choose A Crib For Your Baby

Choosing a crib for a baby is a significant concern since it’s likely going to be your baby’s bed for at least a few years. With the constant threat of SIDS being a danger to newborns, your choice of a crib may be able to help babies avoid that issue. Unfortunately, there’s no hard-and-fast rule as to how to choose a crib. You want something that’ll both keep your baby safe and ensure that he or she can enjoy their sleeping time. You don’t want it put in a room that isn’t conducive to resting either. That’s why, when choosing a crib, you’ll have to select a spot in your house where your baby can fall asleep. In this article, we’ll look at the considerations you should have in choosing a crib for your baby.

Finding the Right Room

Where is the best place for a baby to sleep? While you might want to keep your baby close by, they should have a spot to themselves. The room they’re in should be well-ventilated, which means you should get a fan. Medical Xpress notes that having a fan on a baby reduces the chance of SIDS by 72%. The room temperature should be between 65 and 70 degrees to create the perfect sleeping temperature for a baby. Finally, the crib should remain uncluttered. A cluttered crib can distract the baby in the best case, and lead to them rolling into something and damaging themselves while they sleep in the worst case.

Soft quilted mattresses are soft and supportive, but they may be the wrong choice for a baby. Their softness can lead to suffocation of the baby rolls over onto their fronts. You may want to avoid these soft bedding choices.

Crib Choice Considerations

While you shouldn’t focus on the brand name, one of the qualifications your crib should have is a tag showing its dedication to the Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA). According to the JPMA, the safety standards that the organization sets forward are based on international ASTM standards. This standards-based approach ensures that materials and measurements meet the international engineering levels for safety. When it comes to your baby, having a structurally sound crib isn’t just a consideration. It should be the rule. No parent wants their child to be left in a crib that isn’t secure.

When installing the crib, if it requires mounting, always follow the instructions as closely as possible. If the crib is shaky or seems unstable after your effort, look through your work. There’s likely one or more parts that you missed or installed incorrectly. If worst comes to worst, you can always use the customer service line to get some help installing it the right way around.

Most cribs offer a decent height off the ground. You don’t want a height that’s so tall that you can’t reach in and get your baby from it. The majority of commercial cribs are assembled to be around waist height, allowing easy access to the child inside the enclosure. Some of the more modern cribs come with an option for lowering or raising the crib height. If you have a variety of heights in the family, this may be an option you want to explore.

A crib’s slats need to be a certain width to ensure that the baby doesn’t inadvertently slide between the bars or become caught in them. The ideal width should be about as wide as a soda can. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) mentions that the width between slats in a crib should be no more than two and three-eighths of an inch apart. The corner posts should similarly have a defined height. Anything that extends more than 1/16 of an inch above the crib’s height is a hazard for getting the baby’s clothes caught on it.

Bedding Considerations

Bedding for a baby is very simple. The only thing that a baby really requires is a waterproof pad along with a soft, tightly-fitted bottom sheet. High-count woven cotton, knit cotton, or flannel are all excellent bedding options for a baby. Ideally, you should have between three and four chances of bedding for baby, so that there’s always one available while the others are being washed. Before installing the bedding the first time, it should also be washed to remove any harsh chemicals that may irritate the baby’s sensitive skin.

Making the Right Choices

Your baby’s health and well-being are in your hands, and because of that, you need the information to make the best choices. You don’t want to buy the first Franklink & Ben crib you come across. This choice is a decision that should take you some time because the well-being of your baby depends on it. As a parent, you’re responsible for this little one’s comfort. It would be best if you took that responsibility seriously.

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