Your Baby's Crib

In generations past, choosing a baby bed was a simple affair. Most people simply made do with whatever was available. That might be one from a previous child, a generous gift from a neighbor or even a hastily improvised affair from a dresser drawer.

How To Choose Your Baby's Crib

Fortunately, today, the choices are as diverse as the babies themselves. But that introduces another challenge - selecting a good crib from all the options. That's not a bad problem to have!

Since 1974 all cribs and mattresses have been required to conform to certain safety codes. But some pre-1974 models could still be around, donated by a charitable neighbor or family member looking to save you money. Examine them carefully to ensure they meet certain criteria covered by the regulations.

Among those safety rules are the need for crib slats no wider than 2 3/8 inches to prevent babies from getting a head caught between the bars. They should also be sturdy enough that older babies can't bend or break them. Some have a top rail that is covered in safe material usually a type of strong plastic that won't come off in chunks, since babies may stand up and chew on it.

The crib overall should be equally sturdy and the mattress support particularly so. One way to check is to examine the rails underneath the mattress. One along the center is good, two is better. The cross-members should be strong and spaced no more than a foot apart.

The crib mattress itself will usually be either an inner spring design or foam of some type.

Inner spring mattresses are great for adults, but they have pros and cons for babies. They provide good support, but babies are so much smaller that the factors aren't quite the same, even when the coils are spaced closer together. They also tend to bend away from the crib perimeter, creating a gap that can trap a foot or hand.

Foam mattresses are either ordinary foam latex or the newer heat-sensitive, memory foam type, such as Tempur-Pedic styles. Either works well, but the memory foam crib mattresses will be a little more expensive. That extra cost may well be worth it, since memory foam creates a slow-adjusting and secure mattress.

Regular foam latex makes bouncing easier, making it a little more likely that the baby will bounce a chin or chest onto the top rail. One way to prevent that is simply to get a crib with rails tall enough to make it nearly impossible for the baby to jump high enough to injure itself.

Convenience is an important factor for parents looking for a good baby crib, too. Crib railing often has a mechanism to release the front panel, either by a foot-pedal or a hand lever, or sometimes both. Some require both operations simultaneously to lower the odds of accidents.

Last, but far from unimportant for the majority of parents, the crib should be attractive and fit in with the overall room decor. The baby may not care, but it's perfectly reasonable for parents and visitors to do so!