The Juvenile Products Manufacturers Association (JPMA), an association dedicated to promoting the safe selection and use of juvenile products, maintains that crib bumper pads can help prevent injury when used correctly, and the ordinance which proposes to ban bumpers in the City of Chicago could bring unintended consequences if crib bumper pads are not made available to parents and caregivers.

Traditional crib bumper pads, when used properly, can help prevent limb entrapment and head injuries. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), the greatest risk is to an infant sleeping in the prone position or in a crowded sleep environment that includes pillows, cushions and adult bedding. According to the CPSC, problems with infants getting their limbs entrapped between crib slats accounted for the second highest number of crib related complaints and injuries (over 12 percent of all reports with a high percentage of medical treatments). In addition the bumpers help prevent children from suffering contusions and lacerations from contact with side rails and crib headboards.

In 2011, JPMA commissioned a third party review of previous studies of crib bumper pads. Based on the outcomes of the studies that were reviewed by Exponent, a leading engineering and scientific consulting firm providing solutions to complex technical problems, found that there were methodological problems that were apparent in the criteria used to select the incidents included for analysis and in the analytical treatment of other potential contributors.

In addition, in March of 2011, Innovative Science Solutions (ISS) announced that a thorough review of published scientific studies performed for JPMA revealed no direct evaluation of a relationship between crib bumper pad use and infant death.

The results of the Exponent study demonstrate that: “Investigations into sleep environments of infants consistently fail to identify crib bumpers as a unique or separate source of serious injury or death to sleeping infants. Studies focusing efforts on evaluating sleep-related hazards generally, and crib bumpers explicitly, similarly do not find crib bumpers to be a significant risk.”

“Based on the analysis completed by Exponent, the crib bumper pad ban in the City of Chicago is baseless and may be putting children at risk for further injuries due to unintended consequences and parents attempting to create makeshift items to replace bumper pads,” said Michael Dwyer, JPMA Executive Director.

No fatalities have been reported as caused by use of crib bumpers with infants placed to sleep on their back, as recommended by the American Academy of Pediatrics, in the City of Chicago for more than 10 years.

Chicago does face an epidemic of infant fatalities due to infants being placed to sleep in unsafe sleep environments rather than in cribs and other safe sleep products. Chicago’s Children’s Memorial Hospital issued a research paper just last year which estimated that almost 90, primarily minority, babies die each year in Cook County because they do not have a safe place to sleep.

“The City Council’s actions seem misplaced,” said Dwyer. “Banning safe products does not address this problem and may actually encourage unsafe use of products not specifically intended for baby.”

JPMA consistently communicates safety messages to key audiences and our members’ priority continues to be the well-being and safety of children. JPMA has on ongoing concern for cities that are passing legislation that causes additional confusion for parents and caregivers and is urging the City of Chicago to reconsider all scientific data on crib bumper pad use.

Visit www.cribsafety.org for additional bedding and crib safety tips.

Contact:

Linda Woody, JPMA Communications Manager, 856-642-4420, lwoody@ahint.com