Is Your Infant Bedding Fatal?
In a year more than 6000 babies died due to sudden infant death syndrome(SIDS), among this more than 900 babies died due to sleeping on soft baby bedding sets. That brings to mind the question, is your baby bedding safe?
For infants soft baby nursery bedding may cause suffocation when head sinks into soft mattress during baby placed in her belly. Plush mattresses provide maximum comfort for babies but are a safety threat as well. Fatal accidents may occur when a baby’s head is placed on a soft mattress. Infants are often too week to roll over if they get into a dangerous position.
Parents should make it a priority to test a baby’s bedding by applying some weight to it. If it depresses under medium pressure, pass on it as it could lead to an accident. By applying force to a certain mattress one can actually feel it resisting the weight and it’s actually one way of discovering the mattress strength. A mattress with the strongest resistance is is best.
Bumper pads in the crib are another cause of suffocation. While attractive and cute, infants’ faces may be pressed against the soft pads, causing suffocations when baby is unable to free himself.
The parent should take more precaution and care to the infant because infant may be weak and vulnurable during this period. Parents need to make a choice between wanting cute and wanting what’s safest for the baby. If the parents should choose the latter, they should take out all the bumper pads from the crib and refrain from putting anything that might cause danger to their babies again.
Research has shown that toxic gases, harmful to baby, are found in mattresses. Some researchers have found that phosphorus and arsenic which are generally used as fire retardants, are added to mattresses which can be very harmful. The chemical compounds present in the mattress when reacts with certain material, then they release toxic gases which is very dangerous for the baby, if the baby inhales a large amount of it while sleeping.
Scientists have since found, however, that a frequently occurring fungus in baby bedding may be one of the reactants which is an aid in releasing these toxic fumes. Consequently, they compel parents to purchase new bedding since old bedding is more likely to contain this fungus. To avoid fungus, parents should not reuse bedding in an infants crib, even though infants only sleep on it for a short period of time. Instead, parents should buy new bedding. Old reused bedding will look less pretty than a new baby nursery bedding.
In addition, there is some concern about synthetic fabric in baby bedding sets. While there is no solid proof that synthetic fabrics are harmful to a baby, you may want to stick to natural fibers. There are plenty of stylish cotton baby crib bedding sets available (one of my favorites is the Trend Lab’s Maya crib bedding), so there is no need to sacrifice style for safety.
Using these guidelines, it should be easy for a parent to determine if their baby’s nursery bedding is safe. One should immediately get a safe mattress bedding, so as to sleep without tension for the baby whole night. Also , the baby can sleep well.