Baby & child safety news: Cribs, bedside sleepers, school buses, and pet turtles

 
Safe co-sleeping with infants? At the recent ASTM International meeting, some final details were being worked out on a safety standard for bedside sleepers--bassinet-like devices that connect to an adult bed, allowing the baby to be within arms reach of parents. But there have been a significant number of injuries and fatalities with co-sleepers sold as recently as last year. Learn more in the full post on our Safety blog.

New York's Suffolk County moves to ban drop-side cribs. If it's signed into law, it will be the first place in the country to ban the sale of drop-side cribs. Lawmakers expressed concern over the estimated 90 deaths and 11,000 injuries associated with drop-side cribs between 2005 and 2008. Learn more in the full post on our Safety blog.

School bus safety for kids. Many parents worry about sending their most precious cargo off on the bus each morning, but riding a school bus is considered one of the safest forms of transportation, about seven times safer than passenger vehicles. The greatest risk with school buses is when children are getting on and off. Learn more in the full post on our Safety blog.

Tiny turtles blamed for salmonella outbreak. Even though tiny turtles were banned as pets more than 30 years ago, they were apparently to blame for a large salmonella outbreak in 2007 and 2008. Sickened were 107 people, mostly children, in 34 states. One-third of the victims were hospitalized. Learn more in the full post on our Safety blog.

Comments

[Jason Smith]

It is legal to have small turtles as pets. Read the law before posting.