Baby Cribs: Do I Need Drop-Down Sides?
Posted August 7, 2008 by Mister Knowitall

Category: Parenting

My younger sister has been looking at baby cribs for her impending new baby. Since I’m a dad, she asked me about baby cribs: How important to you both were the drop down sides? Did you guys use that all the time? Even when [your son] was wailing crying? Or did you just bypass that and reach into the crib and pick him up?

All the advice in the world doesn’t mean anything, because it’s mainly opinion. My opinion is that a crib without drop-down sides is harder on your back, arms and shoulders, and that comes from my wife picking a crib that was really pretty, but sacrificed a lot of utility and functionality in exchange for those good looks.

So to illustrate why drop-down sides are needed on a baby crib, I instructed my sister to do a simple experiment that would illustrate my point. Read the rest of this article »

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Does Laying A Baby On Its Back Prevent SIDS?
Posted July 23, 2008 by Mister Knowitall

Category: Health and Nutrition Parenting

Sandy T. in Portland asks: Everyone tells me that I have to lay my new baby on its back to prevent Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, but when I used to babysit as a teenager, everyone said to lay babies on their stomachs. When did this change, why, and is it on the level or one of those medical fads?

If it’s a fad, it’s a long-lived one, because the medical establishment has been recommending it officially for 16 years. Whether it’s as big a deal as they make it out to be is another story. Read the rest of this article »

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