The Dear Dr.MOZ Baby Blog

Dear Dr.MOZ,

My wife and I are expecting our first baby at the end of the year and we would like to use my grandmother’s antique crib that we plan to recondition. I know that modern cribs have been designed with safety in mind, so here’s the question…is there any way we could safely recondition our antique crib to meet current safety standards? Perhaps this is up the GoodFather’s alley.

Enjoy the weekend,
Chris

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Hello Chris,

Thank you for coming to the GoodFather with this important question. To answer your question, no. I understand that it would be nice to use your grandmother’s crib, but you absolutely cannot use it under any circumstances. Approximately 50 babies die every year due to suffocation and strangulation related to poorly designed new cribs, and the use of unsafe old cribs.

You’ll find more tips on choosing safe cribs and inspecting your current crib in The GoodFather gift CD-ROM, but here are a few of the major dangers with old cribs:

• Slats: The distance between the slats must be no more than 2 3/8 inches apart. The slats on older cribs become loose creating dangerous gaps, or were created with larger distances between slats from the beginning. This allows babies to get their heads stuck between the slats.

• Mattresses: New cribs have firm mattresses created to the exact specifications of the crib which keeps your baby from slipping between the mattress and the side of the crib. Any mattress that you would have tried to include in your antique would not have be designed for the crib and would pose a serious safety hazard.

• Headboards: Headboards and footboards in antique cribs often have cutout designs creating additional strangulation/choking opportunities.

• Corner Posts: Corner posts need to be flush with the top of the headboard and footboard. Decorative knobs and other design features often found in heirloom cribs are dangerous as well.

• Locking Switches: Side Rails need at least two locking switches.

• Side Rails: Need to be at least 9 inches above mattress support to protect young babies. Older babies need the side rail to be at a minimum of 26 inches above the mattress support at the lowest position.

So there you have it Chris. There’s no way you are putting your newborn baby in an old crib under the GoodFather’s watch, so forget it! If you want to keep the heirloom crib, use it in another room for storing clothing, blankets, or stuffed animals. Personally, I’d prefer it if you took grandma’s death trap out back and burned it. On the other hand, it’s probably covered in toxic lead paint… so maybe not.

The GoodFather

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