To bumper or not to bumper, that is the question? As soon as we find out we are expecting the creative juices start flowing as to how we are going to decorate our new bundle’s nursery. You go to stores like Pottery Barn Kids, Buy Buy Baby, and stores alike and you find the most adorable bedding sets you’ve ever seen and all complete with a bumper! So you put your crib together with the bumper and all and it sits there and waits for the arrival of your new baby looking oh so adorable when friends and family come to see your creation.
Truth of the matter is that your newborn will typically sleep in a bassinet for the first 3 months of his or her life. When it is time to finally put your 3 “ish” month old in their crib, the fear of SIDS sets in for us parents. There has been a lot of debate over whether bumpers attribute to some deaths in young babies. In fact, Chicago is actually the first city in our country to recently ban the sale of crib bumpers due to safety concerns. The day I put Lincoln in his crib to sleep for the first time, I took our bumper out of the crib and then it sat in his closet for the next year…total waste. Yes, sometimes a leg or arm would wiggle its way out of the slats in the crib and he’d get stuck and I’d have to come to the rescue; however, if that’s the worst thing that could happen, I’m okay with it.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) says it knows of 690 infant deaths associated with pillows and cushions from 1992 to February 2010. So here’s the deal… why chance it? They make a breathable bumper 
that you can put in your baby’s crib. And when their limbs do start to make their way out of the crib at night you can install a breathable bumper and as parents, we can sleep soundly knowing that should his or her tiny face get pressed up against the bumper at night, he/she can still easily breathe. It’s one less thing we have to worry about if you ask me. So are bumpers worth the money and time spent worrying, absolutely NOT!
pretty sure taking my bumper off our registry was a sad sad day for me. buuuut you’re totally right, 100% waste if your babe cant actually SLEEP with the damn thing in there 🙂
We love our breathable bumper! Well worth $30!
I thought this was going to be a blog about not using bumpers at all. Honestly my thoughts while reading was “I still like the bumper and will use again.” I never knew until now that there is a “breathable” bumper. A definite buy for our next one. I understand the seriousness and sometimes horribly fatal outcome of SIDS. My son loved to sleep with his head smashed into the crib bumper and it would drive me crazy!! The few times I moved him he would wiggle back to that same corner. It wasn’t until months later that I started reading news about not using bumpers. I have to wonder, what’s next? I realize the ultimate outcome is to prevent less SIDS deaths and I’m all for that of course. But the reality is there are going to be unfortunate outcomes that we will never be able to control. This year, it’s eliminating bumpers….what will be the new thing to stress and eliminate next year? I guess we’ll find out….and naturally, I’ll stress all over again.
Thanks for the breathable bumper information!!!
I had never heard of a breathable bumper either! So glad you informed me of that because that is definitely what I’ll use next time around. 🙂