Experts say Fenty baby’s crib could be hazardous to health
By Bill Myers
Examiner Staff Writer 11/20/08
Experts who saw a photo published in the Washington Post of the nursery of Mayor Adrian Fenty and his wife Michelle, pictured, say the crib, adorned with toys and pillows, is unsafe for a baby. A published profile with photographs of Mayor Adrian Fenty’s family nursery adorned with toys and pillows has worried child safety experts, who say the arrangement could be dangerous for a baby.
“A crib that’s safe for a baby to sleep is empty except for a firm mattress,” said Laura Reno, an executive with Baltimore-based First Candle, a nonprofit group that helps spread the word about infant deaths. “Any time you put any of that fluffy stuff in there, it can get in the way of the oxygen they need.”
Reno and others are stirred up over photos of Michelle Cross Fenty that ran in the Washington Post’s Home Section last week. The pictures show a crib nearly buried in plush pink toys, bumpers, quilts and blankets. The Fentys are expecting a little girl — the first in the family in generations.
Child safety advocates say that babies can easily suffocate in a crowded, plush-filled crib. Several, including Children’s National Medical Center Dr. Rachel Moon, have written letters to the Post saying that the photos send a
dangerous message.
“We were, like, crazy when we saw it,” said Betty Connal, executive director of SIDS-Mid-Atlantic, a nonprofit group based in Northern Virginia.
Connal also wrote to the Post. “That crib is just not a safe place for a baby to be sleeping in,” she told The Examiner.
Fenty’s spokeswoman Mafara Hobson said, “The Fenty baby isn’t born yet and therefore not a single Fenty has slept in the crib. The toys were simply part of the layout for the Post photo shoot. Once the baby arrives the Fentys will follow all precautions with regard to SID safety.”
Post officials didn’t return calls.
Nearly 90 percent of D.C.-area babies who die suddenly in their first year suffocate while sleeping, Reno said.
African-American children are more at risk. Three times as many black babies die in their sleep as white or Asian babies do, Connal said.
“That made it doubly worse to see Mrs. Fenty’s crib,” Connal said. “Let’s hope she takes all the soft stuff out of the crib before the baby arrives.”
For more information on safe sleeping, check out Web sites for First Candle, www.firstcandle.org, or SIDS-Mid-Atlanic, www.sidsma.org.
2 Comments
Reader Comments:
POSTED Nov 20, 2008
mike: "are you kidding me? this is our local news? the fentys didn't kill their other kids, and this one will be fine too."POSTED Nov 21, 2008
Shannon: "Mike, maybe if you had to consol mothers and fathers who lost their babies to SIDs, like these two women, you would speak up as well. Thanks Betty and Rachel for having the courage to speak up. Getting information, like this, to the public is a great use of space."