Feds Change the Way Cribs Must be Made; Nearly All Cribs Unsafe Under New Rules

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission today made sweeping changes about how cribs must be made -- banning the once ubiquitous drop-side crib -- and requiring safety standards that few cribs on the market today can meet. That means virtually every crib in use or for sale in the country today will be considered unsafe under the new standards.

About 10 million cribs have been recalled in the past few years as the enormity of the design failings of drop-side cribs have become more clear in the face of hundreds of documented incidents, including some 50 deaths over the past decade. The main culprits have been the drop-side crib and flimsy hardware. The resulting hazard has caused infants to get trapped -- and sometimes suffocate -- when gaps opened between the side of the crib and the mattress.