Drop-Side Crib Ban

[acemanner]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2010-08-12-cribs12_CV_N.htm

weird, but personally I think that the construction is probbaly the peoples who set up the cribs fault before the companies. I'm sure some of those were faulty products, but its like the same thing as the lady with the hot coffee at mcdonalds.

[Darkfinn]

Remember, America is sue-happy and will do anything in the name of "protecting the children". IMO people should have a Parenting License issued by the government before being allowed to raise a child.

[baby_snow_white]

I think it is both,but mostly the companies. If they wasn't so money hungry. They wouldn't try to get the product done so cheaply that they ship the jobs out of the US and into China or other countries just so they can make more money. I'm not saying that making money is bad,but when it comes at the expense of children. When it government going to wake up and tell the companies. They have to do alot better? Never that is when. Government is in big business back pocket and they are not going to do anything to upset their gravy train. Just look at the recent BP disaster in the gulf. That is a prime example.

[glycerine]

http://www.usatoday.com/money/companies/regulation/2010-08-12-cribs12_CV_N.htm

weird, but personally I think that the construction is probbaly the peoples who set up the cribs fault before the companies. I'm sure some of those were faulty products, but its like the same thing as the lady with the hot coffee at mcdonalds.

Not really... the design of the crib is inherently flawed. The crappy hardware that the crib companies have shifted to has too much "play" and lets the drop-side get to a position where it can harm a baby. As in "harm" = "kill".

As to "it's the people's fault who set it up": If you are providing a product that's going to be put together by The Unwashed Masses you damn well better test the assembly using that population. Consumer-assembled products need to be engineered so that it's impossible to screw up the assembly. Keyed pieces, alignment jigs, that sort of thing, can all be incorporated into a design to force proper construction. Ikea does a very good job of this. Their stuff is so fool-proof that the instructions are purely graphic. People are idiots. Companies that make products that they KNOW will be put together by idiots need to design them so the idiots can't screw it up.

It makes me sad that I'm going to trash the crib my kids both used back in the 80's. It was a pretty expensive crib, and I was hoping my (someday) grandkids would use it. Knowing the dangers of even a well put-together drop-side crib (and I can guarantee you that I did a very good job putting that crib together!), i'm going to haul it to the dump in pieces.

[Darkfinn]

Funny... I'm sure many of us were raised with drop-side cribs. I think we came out OK.

What is it over the past 10 years with the sissification of American children? Oh! It might be dangerous or dirty or have some germs on it... and heaven forbid any parent lay a hand on their child in the name of discipline. Funny... humans have been raising children for thousands of years and, for the most part, we turn into decent and capable adults.

I am really really afraid for the generation that is under 10 years old right now.

[Dougie]

The weaker you make the masses, the easier it is to govern them.

[Jabez]

I knew this ban was coming. We put up new recall notices every single week on our bulletin board at work, informing the public that the cribs they bought are now being recalled because of their defective nature.

There are some companies that have gone out of business, so that when people take the recalled products back to the store, the store has to reimburse the customer. The store has to eat that cost because the manufacturer is no longer in business to reimburse them.

[glycerine]

Funny... I'm sure many of us were raised with drop-side cribs. I think we came out OK.

What is it over the past 10 years with the sissification of American children? Oh! It might be dangerous or dirty or have some germs on it... and heaven forbid any parent lay a hand on their child in the name of discipline. Funny... humans have been raising children for thousands of years and, for the most part, we turn into decent and capable adults.

I am really really afraid for the generation that is under 10 years old right now.

What's different now is better reporting of cause-of-death. Back in the day if a kid died in a crib, it was a terrible accident...but the cause of death, the crib, wasn't tallied in a central place. What has happened now is that cause-of-death stats are being kept at a much higher level of detail. Kids have been dying in cribs for a long time...it's only recently that a tally of that has come to public attention.

Take the sleeping-on-the-stomach cause of death. "SIDS" has been around forever. Only in the last decade or so was it realized that too-soft beading and sleeping on the stomach was leading to a lot of those cases. Take out the soft bedding, flip the munchkin over, and the SIDS rate from that cause goes away.

When it becomes obvious that a cause of death can be eliminated, it's both a moral and ethical responsibility to get rid of the cause.

As to the discipline issue... that's a whole 'nother kettle of fish and has ZIP to do with issues such as the crib. It's not "sissisification" to prevent the death of a child, it's simply acting on the results of good, solid, statistical reporting of infant cause-of-death.