National Crib Safety Advocacy Organization Announces May 2 as National "Keeping Babies Safe" Day

Keeping Babies Safe (KBS), a Warren-based nonprofit organization that promotes safe sleeping practices for infants and toddlers across the country, has kicked off an awareness campaign designed to promote safe sleep practices and products for babies.

The campaign will culminate in the first-ever National KBS Day on May 2, in which KBS staff, volunteers, sponsors and donors will honor lawmakers and others who have helped lead the cause over the past year.

“For more than a decade, KBS has sounded the steady drumbeat of safe sleep awareness, which in turn has created bans on dangerous products and has helped enact laws that work to ensure babies are sleeping safely,” said Joyce Davis, KBS president and founder, who lost her four-month-old son to a preventable crib accident.

The first-annual Keeping Babies Safe Day is held intentionally on the same day as National Baby Day. KBS is underscoring the fact that newborns can spend up to 18 hours a day in a crib. Parents and other caregivers need to know the latest safe sleep practices to protect them.

Even with so much advocacy, as well as easy-to-access information on the Internet, many parents are unaware when they are putting their cherished ones in harm’s way. Most alarming are parents who mistakenly place supplemental baby mattresses in soft-sided play yards, which continually prove to be a suffocation hazard for babies who roll over and can fall through the sides.

KBS is now awaiting a ruling from the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission, which is considering its petition for a national ban on the sale of supplemental mattresses for soft-sided play yards. The proposal has received the support of 64,000 pediatricians across the United States, all of whom are members of the American Academy of Pediatricians.

Meanwhile, KBS has been successful in educating many new parents about the dangers of supplemental mattresses in portable cribs. KBS has urged major retailers to stop selling supplemental mattresses, including Toys 'R Us, buy buy BABY, Kmart, Sears and Wayfair. Meanwhile, Amazon and Walmart have pledged to undertake internal investigations into the dangers of the product, while they await the CPSC ruling expected for later this year.

KBS has also urged Congress to enact federal legislation requiring safe crib standards. As a result, new standards for safe cribs were included in the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008. The law went into effect nationwide on June 28, 2011 and the name of Davis’ late son, Garret, was included in the bill. All new cribs now meet important safety standards; day care centers and other public facilities cannot use cribs that do not adhere to the new standards.

“Our achievements are a direct result of our partners in action,” Davis said. “People believe in this cause and continue to invigorate it. Keeping Babies Safe Day is for them and for all the families who can play a part each day in promoting crib safety to keep babies safe.”

There are many ways in which you can mark Keeping Babies Safe Day, providing families with such tips as:

•Never use supplemental mattresses in soft-sided play yards.
• Don’t sleep in bed with your baby.
• Make sure the bed sleeps on his/her back.
• Keep the crib or bassinet clear of toys and other bedding, including fluffy blankets, comforters, stuffed animals, bumper pads and wedges.
• Post comments on online sites, such as Amazon, Target and Walmart, where supplemental mattresses are sold. Inform shoppers of the dangers.

To learn more about the work of KBS, to participate in the May 2 celebration or how you can celebrate “Keeping Babies Safe Day” in your community, please visit www.keepingbabiessafe.org.