From the time you bring your infant home, their crib will play a fundamental role in their growth and development. Providing your child with comfort and security while you aren’t there, these furniture items plant the initial seeds of independence and, most critically, keep them safe. But how necessary is safety to how we use our cribs? Though the answer might seem obvious, there’s a lot more to it than parents often realize. Here is why crib safety is so important and how to maximize it in your nursery.

The Importance of Crib Safety

Babies will spend most of their first year of life in their crib because their schedules dominantly consist of sleeping. In fact, newborns can sleep as many as 17 hours each day, providing their bodies with the energy to grow. Unfortunately, if you have the wrong furniture, this also leaves a lot of opportunity for something to go wrong. For starters, this level of use can cause poorly built cribs to fall apart and potentially injure your child.

Even items around or near the crib can pose a risk since your baby could reach out and grab them when you aren’t looking. Hazards come in all shapes and sizes, so while you might not consider something dangerous a first glance, it never hurts to be careful when it comes to your baby’s well-being.

Tips for Maximizing Crib Safety

Now that you understand why crib safety is so important for raising a child, you can start utilizing a few tips to maximize it. First and foremost, crib safety requires you to scrutinize every aspect of the product itself, from its construction to the quality of its materials. This way, you’re not only knowledgeable about the piece, but you also know the signs of potential deterioration. A quality crib will have bars no more than six centimeters apart with no loose, cracked, or splintered pieces.

Some additional measures for increasing the safety of your baby’s crib include:

• Keeping items out of reach of the crib
• Ensuring the crib mattress touches all sides of the frame
• Periodically testing the crib for proper stability

For more information about how you can keep your baby safe in their crib, reach out to Simply Nursery. We sell strong and durable cribs that use only the most natural materials. Because of this, our products aren’t just long-lasting but healthier for your baby to sleep in as well. We also offer baby crib conversion kits that make the process of transitioning your baby into a toddler bed simpler than ever.