(WBBM NEWSRADIO) — October is Infant Safe Sleep Awareness Month, and the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services is telling parents not to use crib bumpers.
A new federal law bans the manufacture, sale or distribution of padded bumpers for cribs.
DCFS spokesperson Deborah Lopez says babies and infants face harm from the products.
“A baby’s head can become trapped between the bumper pad and the side of the crib, or the ribbons and ties can cause the baby to become strangled,” Lopez tells WBBM Newsradio.
Lopez says blankets, pillows and stuffed toys should also be removed from cribs, because they increase the risk of suffocation. She said babies are safest when they sleep alone and on their backs in cribs, with firm mattresses and tight-fitting sheets.
Cribs should be free of pillows, blankets, stuffed animals and toys, Lopez said.
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