"He was sleeping in a Pack 'n Play with a supplemental mattress," recalls Warren mom, Joyce Davis. "And he suffocated between the side and the Pack n' Play."
Deaths and injuries like Joyce's son Garret's are the subject of the first major study of crib, playpen and bassinet accidents which found an average of 26 infants daily were injured in crib-related accidents alone.
"The study looked at a 19-year period at non fatal as well as fatal injuries," says the study's co-author Dr. Gary Smith of the Nationwide Children's Hospital in Columbus, Ohio. "And we found that 9,500 children are rushed each year to a hospital emergency department for a crib-related injury and 113 children died each year (due to crib related injuries.)"
Dr. Smith says most injuries were head or neck injures. The most likely scenario he says were children climbing and falling out of drop-side cribs.
"Cribs are unique," says Dr. Smith. "They really need to be held to a higher standard. This is the type of product where we don't expect them (parents) to stay and supervise their child. We want them to put their child in a crib and leave with piece of mind.
"Drop side cribs have been banned," says Joyce Davis. "If people see them on Craigslist or Ebay, do not buy it."
Joyce's organization, KeepingBabiesSafe.org, was instrumental in passing the new federal law and strives to spread information like: no soft bedding, bumpers, or stuffed animals in the crib. And put baby on it's back in a bare crib with just a tight fitting sheet.
That's information which could have saved her own son Garret's life had she known then, what she knows now.
"Cribs continue to be the leading cause of death among all juvenile products," says Joyce. "And no family should every have to go through what we've gone through."
Garret would be 10 years old now. And if had lived would be very proud of his mother for making sure his legacy educates others.
Full study on crib related injuries
Story by: Nina Pineda
Produced by: Steve Livingstone
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