Journal Entry

Crib Recalls

Today, it’s easy to check for crib recalls. The internet has put all kinds of crib recall info right at any parent’s fingertips. If you’re thinking of buying a new crib, it never hurts to type the brand name into Google or the Consumer Reports search engine just to be sure it hasn’t been recalled. The same is true of an older crib you may be reusing—recently, a large crib recall was issued for cribs that were sold everywhere since 1998. Fortunately, crib recalls don’t happen too often. Still, even though we’re really not big fans of scare tactics in journalism, we do feel obligated to advise crib purchasers to check for crib recalls before laying down your money.

We will try to keep this area updated on crib recalls when possible but fortunately, as we mentioned above, they don’t happen every day. Still, you’ll want to check elsewhere in case we’re temporarily out of date. As of now, the biggest news in crib recalls is the 2007 recall of over one million cribs due to an inherent design flaw in the product. The cribs in question were drop side cribs manufactured by the Simplicity crib company. What made this recall especially newsworthy is that the Simplicity drop side cribs were sold for two years while the Consumer Products Safety Commission pursued their investigation. Standard procedure for any product recall is to stop sales of the product pending investigation, but somehow the crib itself escaped attention after an infant death two years ago. Some involved parties claim that it wasn’t until the local newspaper, The Chicago Tribune, investigated independently and reported their findings to the Consumer Products Safety Commission that a government investigation into Simplicity cribs was finally opened and pursued. The crib recall mainly hinges on incorrect drop bar installation, but it is unclear if it is due to an error in the crib assembly instructions or in the crib hardware.

The full list of Simplicity cribs that were recalled include: the Aspen 3-in-1, the Aspen 4-in-1, the Crib N Changer Combo, the Nursery In A Box crib set, the Chelsea and the Pooh 4-in-1. Though they received a bit less press, several cribs manufactured under the Graco brand were also recalled. These include the Graco Aspen 3-in-1, the Ultra 4-in-1, the Trio, the Whitney and the Ultra 5-in-1.

While the choice is ultimately yours, we would probably advise you to get an entirely new crib. Typically, for a crib recall like this one, the company will offer to send buyers new hardware. If you consider yourself competent when it comes to directions, this could make sense. But our attitude is that if it was unsafe once, we’ll just try to get a refund and get something more reliable.