Company Recalls 24,000 Baby Cribs

Posted on Feb 29, 2008

Safety officials have slept on the issue and now issued a recall of 24,000 baby cribs from Indonesia.

Imported by Munire Furniture Inc., the cribs contain brackets that prohibit its’ mattresses from fully being lowered. Officials say this could allow children to crawl over the railing and fall, reported the Associated Press in Washington.

Thus far, no injuries or fatalities have been reported.

Parents should be alerted if they own a Majestic Curved Top, Majestic Flat Top, Essex, Brighton/Sussex or Captiva crib. The cribs were sold between November 2005 and November 2007.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) reported from 2002 to 2004, 241 children under age 5 died in incidents involving nursery products. Forty percent of the deaths involved cribs where soft bedding was the leading contributor, the CPSC said. The federal agency said many children suffocated when lying face down on pillows or bedding.

"Less is more when you're talking about the crib," CPSC spokeswoman Julie Vallese said, She said adult pillows, blankets, stuffed animals and infant quilts should remain outside the crib.

The CPSC instructs parents and those in the day-care profession to place babies on their backs in a crib that meets safety standards. The agency said this would help prevent suffocation and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS).

Babies can become trapped while lying on a mattress that does not properly fit the crib structure, the CPSC said. As a rule, parents never should have a gap larger than two fingers anywhere between the sides of the crib and the mattress, the agency advised.

In 2006, the CPSC reported 66,400 emergency injuries linked with nursery products among children under age 5. Infant carriers and car seats, excluding motor vehicle accidents, accounted for 14,200 injuries and cribs and mattresses accounted for 11,300.