By Robert Thatcher

A baby crib is your baby’s first furniture. It is the only item in the world that you are intending to leave your baby unattended for periods of time. That is the more reason to buy only cribs that are safest. The baby crib will also be the place where your child will be spending most of the time. Cribs are expected to be of use until the child is about two to three years old when the baby is prepared to be sleeping in a real bed.

Baby crib standards for manufacture have been at work since 1973. Old cribs therefore should already be discarded in favor of the newer designs that meet safety standards. Parents are lavish when it comes to providing for their children. And so it is expected that parents will want the best baby crib. You can always opt to buy the most expensive baby crib and parents whenever they can afford it will always try their hardest to provide for their children what they think is best.

The best for your child is not necessarily mean the expensive kind as features has to take a back seat when it comes to safety. There are standards that should be observed when selecting a baby crib.

Safety

The Consumers Products Safety Commission has mandatory safety standards and good baby crib manufacturer subject each crib to tests before they put it out into the market. Any crib therefore that is in circulation should have the seal of passing the mandatory standards.

All finishes, paints, stains, lacquer etc. must be lead free. Baby’s love to bite and put into their mouths anything that fancies them. You would not want your baby chewing on materials with lead content.

Be on the lookout for warped slats and weak rails as even the most expensive is subject to human errors. It is not only the baby’s weight that the crib could be supporting. You could be leaning into it when picking up the child and your added weight might break a weak rail and could injure both you and your child.

Avoid also decorations that could trap your baby. Everything could be working fine in the earlier months but when the baby starts to grow and become active, fancy decorations could injure the child.

Do not settle for baby cribs made from inferior woods. Inferior woods could be cheaper but it will not provide the stability that you might need. Remember the crib that was passed on and used from sibling to sibling? Baby cribs are like that. Your next children could be using the same crib and if you do not check out for stability, well you know what usually happens.

Some of the mandatory standard for cribs design that should help you during your selection.

-Distances between slats should be not more than 2 3/8 inches.

-The top of the drop sides when in raised position should be at least 26 inches above the support from the lowest position.

-Drop sides must be not less than 9 inches above the mattress support.

-The size of the frame should at least be 27 ¾ inches wide and 51 ¾ inches long.

It is always best to buy cribs months before your child is born. Cribs are not staples in many stores and when you have a particular baby crib in mind, locating a particular baby crib could be difficult and time consuming.

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