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To date, features on the safety hazards of fitted crib sheets and the attributes of StayPut™ as a safer alternative have already appeared in the following, to name but a few:
Good Housekeeping: GH Institute Report: Crib Sheet Danger - February 2001
The Dateline Interview - October, 1998
From Good Housekeeping:
Consumer Watch, November, 1998 - The Crib Sheet Catastrophe. A study by the Good Housekeeping Institute has found that the majority of fitted crib sheets are simply too small or use poor quality elastic (or both)- As a result, they come off the corners of crib mattresses too easily- a problem that can turn lethal when it comes to children.
Children under the age of 2 have the ability to pull the thin material of fitted cribs sheets around them, "but many don't yet possess the perception necessary to unwrap themselves," says Bradley Thach, M.D., a pediatrician and researcher on Accidental Infant Death at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.
Edward Tronick, M.D., professor of Pediatrics at Children's Hospital in Boston and Harvard University Medical Center says: "That an infant would be strong enough to pull up the corner of a sheet that doesn't fit." He also noted that once a baby had grasped a sheet corner and rolled over, the child's own weight would act as an additional force in loosening the sheet.
Marie and her mother in law have designed a crib sheet that goes on like a pillowcase and is secured with a velcro flap beneath the mattress.
NOTE: Good Housekeeping tested 23 crib sheets-their disturbing results showed all could be pulled off the mattress. A StayPut™ cannot be pulled off the mattress.
THE DAILY TRANSCRIPT EDITION - Wednesday, October 21, 1998 Norwood-Five months after losing an infant son who was strangled in a crib sheet, a local mom, Marie Reen, is stepping up her efforts in a crusade for safer infant bedding.
The Norwood Bulletin
The Reen family has been on a crusade spreading awareness of the potential hazards of crib sheets and giving something back to the community.
The Cape Cod Times - Sunday, July 18. 1999
Norwood Woman Campaigns for standards on crib sheets
- by Donna Scaglione
While lots of baby equipment- cribs, mattresses, bumper pads- must meet specific government standards, crib sheets do not. Marie Reen of Norwood is trying to change that......Reen is doing all she can to make sure what happened to Jimmy (her son) never happens to another child, that the pain her family has endured never strikes another.
Since Jimmy's death, Reen and her mother-in-law have been working with the American Society for Testing and Materials Infant Bedding Subcommittee to encourage the group to devise uniform testing standards for manufacturers of crib sheets and regulations regarding their design-particularly their depth- since mattress depths vary between four and six inches, Reen says.
"Its going to be a long road," she says of her effort....(but) "if we can get regulations on these sheets then (children) can be safe...Your child's crib is the only place where you can leave your child unattended....I was home and my child was in his crib. They're supposed to be safe in their crib. It's such a false sense of security."
Orange County Register - September 15,1999
- by Theresa Walker
Last month a subcommittee of the American Society for Testing and Materials approved a standard that would require a label on crib sheets cautioning parents to make sure they fit securely on the mattress, said Don Mays, technical director of Good Housekeeping Institute. Mays believes the industry will go beyond that stopgap measure and adopt a performance standard, perhaps within two years.
"We're just asking manufacturers to put a little bit more material and
better quality elastic on their sheets," Reen said.
