Oct 28 2008
Another Recall on Cribs
Another 5-month-old child was killed in Brooklyn, NY, on 31 Aug 2008. The baby was entrapped between the matress and the stationary side rail of a convertible crib, and killed by suffocation.
CPSC has issued a recall on this, together with Playkids USA. Not sure if this is due to quality or design issue? It is anothe China made product. 
All parents out there, it is important to check out whether the stuff you use is safe for your kids or not. Remember few years ago, a child was choked to death by his own pacifier? Aparently there are standards that a pacifier should meet, and it wasn’t met. There was no ventilation holes, and the size of the mouth piece was too small that the whole pacifier could just go into the child’s mouth. Unfortunately our government don’t monitor these standards, so it is important for us to check these out from other countries. CPSC is a good source.
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It seems logical that most parents should be aware of the potential dangers of the cribs and other child toys that they buy. When you see the cribs that make news for fatal flaws, many times there is some “fancy” or aesthetic feature that caused the death.
Most household items used on a daily basis holds the potential of being dangerous. 2 cases have been reported so far of children killed by collapsible tables(those kind you can fold and store) when it folded while they were playing underneath it.
Not really logical unless you do the research. Most people think as long as it’s out in the market and in the stores, the product must be safe, especially here in Asia where we usually prefer to let other people do the thinking for us!
Eric: I tend to agree with Tinytapir (see her response 2 after yours). Most parents do you know about these dangers until news reported it. Anyway, I do agree to a certaint extent, that a lot of ‘fancy’ decos are actually dangerous. Let’s go back to basic!
EMYYL: Well, I think the foldable tables are not meant for children. Most of the households here do not care about baby-proofing the house. For example, you can see babies crawling around, and there are coins on the table, in most households! Take most Chinese households for another example - their praying altar for the ‘earth god’ has an oil lamp + ashes with josticks + tea cups, etc. All placed just on the floor. Imagine crawling babies putting the ashes into her mouth, spil the oil lamp and causing fire, etc. These are potential dangers. These household would not be baby proved because (1) awareness not there; (2) ‘too troublesome’ they say.
Tinytapir: Hehehe! I think you know the Asian market well enough to say this. Hahaha! That’s why I write a lot of these posts to help creating awareness. Hopefully more will be aware of the importance.
I’ll agree that while many people don’t know about he dangers, many also do. We see warnings and news stories all the time about these types of incidents. Most responsible parents should take the time to learn what is safe for their child. Taking ten minutes to read about common household dangers for newborns is not difficult. I guarantee there are dozens of blogs with this very topic.
Eric: Well said. Unfortunatel I’ve seen many irresponsible parents too. Nowadays parents are more selfish! Many know the dangers but would not bother, and I would attribute this to either selfish or lazy or ignorant. Many (including my own parents) can be naïve and think:”don’t worry too much, I am always around to ensure this won’t happen to my babies!”
I have argued many times with my kids care taker (my MIL) on child proofing too!
To some ppl, it is also the language and technology barrier. Some older generations here don’t read newspaper, don’t know computer, not educated to read English… That is sad…