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Original poster

Drop-side cots likely to be banned in the US

16 replies

MegBusset · 15/07/2010 21:19

Story here, not sure if it's made the press over here.

Never occurred to me that drop-side cots could be dangerous (DS2 is sleeping in one right now), has anyone heard anything about this?

OP posts:
MrsChemist · 15/07/2010 21:59

It's never occurred to me either. DS has a drop side cot, but it is old, and has metal runners, which the article says is sturdier than plastic ones.

Although that makes you wonder why they don't just make them metal again.

Malkuth · 15/07/2010 22:11

Sounds to me like the problem isn't dropside cots but cheap, crappily made dropside cots combined with very lax safety standards.

bumpsoon · 16/07/2010 10:56

oh flip the sliegh one is exactely the same as one ive just got off a nice american couple from freecycle

diddl · 16/07/2010 13:46

Blimey-what are they going to do then?

Have both sides fixed?

A shortarse like me couldn´t reach in without a dropside

SagacityNell · 16/07/2010 13:51

Am i being dim? How could it come apart to make a "v shape". Are they manufactured differently in America?

I never used my dropsides anyway despite being a shortarse!(I just didn't lower it fully until they could stand)

EnglandAllenPoe · 16/07/2010 13:54

Agree malkuth,

they seem to be saying the old style ones = ok.

so it seems a bit daft to ban all drop-sided ones, as it is a useful feature...

mine is ancient and has metal slidey things, though tiny babies don't go in it anyway...

PrettyCandles · 16/07/2010 13:56

Sounds a bit backhanded. Surely they should legislate for a higher standard of manufacturing rather than ban dropsides because they are sometimes flimsy or poorly constructed.

Perhaps carseats ought to be banned because some are poorly manufactured and parents don't always install them properly.

differentID · 16/07/2010 13:59

what happens sometimes is that when the cot is being put together, the screws aren't being tightened enough, so as the baby gets bigger and more energetic, they loosen.

In the uk, dropside cots with hidden runners have 2 points for the side to catch on to, so unless the screws are really loose then there shouldn't be a gap.

undercovamutha · 16/07/2010 14:00

This happened to our cot which was (not cheap) from Mothercare. The side didn't come totally unattached, but the piece of plastic attaching the one side snapped and made the one side slightly loose/wobbly IYSWIM. If I had had an older toddler, it may have been dangerous.

We got a replacement plastic attachment and I made a complaint. We have continued to use the cot, but we don't drop the side just in case, and it seems fine. It shouldn't have happened though, and if I'd had more energy at the time I would have really kicked up a fuss.

PrettyCandles · 16/07/2010 14:02

Sagacity, yes, they are different. IIRC there's a lot more space between the components than in a European cot, abd the dropsides hang from pegs at the top and pegs at the bottom that run down tracks which are screwed onto the ends of the cot. So if the track breaks the bottom peg could come out and the stability if the whole side depend on the top peg.

Honestly, Americans, open your minds abd look at how things are done in other parts of the world. You might learn something new. The American Way is not the only way!

foreverastudent · 16/07/2010 14:43

They ban cots but allow handguns

slouchingtowardswaitrose · 16/07/2010 14:58

Thank you so much PrettyCandles.

Without you I would never have opened my mind as I have just done on your instruction. WOW! The world's other ways are AMAZING!

Original poster
MegBusset · 16/07/2010 21:58

Undacovamotha that happened with our Mothercare cot too! why they made those bits plastic and not metal is beyond me (well other than it saved them a few pence)

OP posts:
lovechoc · 17/07/2010 19:51

never bothered getting one for DS with the drop-side - we just got a basic model out of Ikea with no drop-sides.

I can see why they would be a hazard though, but wasn't the reason we didn't go for one.

Habbibu · 17/07/2010 19:52

Forever, that's because the right to have cots isn't enshrined in the constitution.

starkadder · 20/07/2010 19:49

We had our DS in a dropside cot in a holiday home when he was just over 1. The side had seemed wobbly so we had tightened it but obviously not enough - we put him down for his nap one afternoon and a few minutes later he started bawling. We thought he was just unsettled due to being in a strange place and left him for about 2 mins. I then couldn't bear it any longer and went upstairs - he was in the middle of the room, in his sleeping bag, sobbing his eyes out, and the side of the cot was gaping open. He must have stood up and fallen through.

I was SO upset and angry (and felt so guilty for having left him for 2 mins). His room was at the top of a flight of stone stairs so my main concern was that he might have got out and tumbled down (he was crawling, not walking at the time). Didn't even think of him getting stuck and suffocating but of course this could have happened. and

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