Agency Addresses Baby|Hammocks and Crib Rails

WASHINGTON (CN) - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission has proposed updated safety standards for bassinets and toddler beds it believes would further reduce the risk of injury.

For infants, the agency has found that baby hammocks may present dangers not yet incorporated into the rules, particularly of infant injury or death if the hammock flips over. For this, the agency would add a performance requirement and test procedure for maximum allowable rocking angle, maximum allowable rest angle of the sleep surface, and maximum allowable flatness angle, among other new requirements. The agency also plans to disallow strap restraints on a bassinet or cradle, that require action on the part of the caregiver to secure it, as an infant can trap himself.

The agency would add to the definition of bassinets and cradles that these bed options are meant for children who cannot yet push themselves up onto their hands and knees.

Once a child can push himself up onto hands and knees, he needs a toddler bed, which is more stable.

Guard rails on toddler beds are not required, but if a product has guard rails, they must reach to at least five inches above the sleeping surface, under the proposed standard. A guard rail must be able to withstand 50 pounds of force, the maximum weight of a child for which a toddler bed is made. The slats of the guard rails also would be force tested, and specific warnings on entrapment and strangulation hazards would be required on the beds.

Once a rule is adopted, manufacturers and importers would have six months to comply. The requirements would not be retroactive.

Click the document icon for these two regulations and others.

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