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Crib Bumper Pads
July 2016
Here in the United States, the push to completely ban bed-sharing or co-sleeping, co-bedding, and the like is going full force. This provides a great deal of controversy on many levels, and concerns are being voiced about the increase in very unsafe sleeping arrangements. Sofa, recliner chairs, cribs filled with pillows, blankets, toys and bumper pads are posing new risks to the babies who are no longer in close proximity of their breastfeeding mother.
Judy Beal, DNSc, RN, FNAP, FAAN addresses one aspect of this situation in her article, "Infant Deaths From Use of Crib Bumpers Are Increasing." (p 253). Although the data seems a bit old, it is very frightening to see a threefold increase in crib bumper related deaths between 2005 to 2012 than those in the years 1985 to 2005. Beal reports, "Crib bumpers caused 48 suffocations, 67% of which were caused by the bumper alone and 33% by the infant being wedged between a bumper and another object in the crib. Beal shares information contained in the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) report. "The mean age of the infants involved in these crib deaths was 4.6 months, with 50% less than 3 months and 90% less than 7 months."
Crib bumper pads were developed to protect infants and young children from becoming entrapped between the crib slats in the years prior to the manufacturer guidelines being changed to spacing less than 2 3/8" or narrower between slats. At this point, there have been no US Federal regulations put in place to safeguard against bumper use. Therefore, companies can continue to produce and sell what is now considered to be an unsafe product for use with infants and young children.
As an aside from this article, the Step 2 Education team attended the 2016 annual conference for the International Lactation Consultant Association, in Chicago, Illinois, USA. At several sessions, the issue of where infants can and should sleep safely were discussed, reinforcing the well-researched issue of co-sleeping, including information from the World Health Organization. One session even documented the much higher number of infants who die in the crib environment vs. the co-sleeping environment, which includes bed-sharing, close proximity (separate but shared space), and separate sleep areas within the same room. The scare tactics used by some US organizations in a one-size-fits-all promotional campaign does not take into account this research. Nor does it consider the research showing the maternal nearness actually teaching infants to come into a natural deep/light sleep pattern, as is done in all mammals worldwide.
For those of us who work in a facility that has "outlawed" discussion of any type of co-sleeping, how do you handle the discharge teaching on safe infant sleep? Do you teach that sleeping on the couch or recliner is more unsafe? Let's get a discussion started on this topic.
Kathy Parkes, MSN-Ed, BSPsy, RN, IBCLC, RLC, FILCA
Professional Development Educator, Step 2 Education International
Step 2 Education International Inc.
Montreal, Quebec, Canada
H4A 1G2
Courriel
This Privacy Policy describes how your personal information is collected, used, and shared when you visit or make a purchase from https://step2education.com (the "Site").
PERSONAL INFORMATION WE COLLECT
When you visit the Site, we automatically collect certain information about your device, including information about your web browser, IP address, time zone, and some of the cookies that are installed on your device. Additionally, as you browse the Site, we collect information about the individual web pages or products that you view, what websites or search terms referred you to the Site, and information about how you interact with the Site. We refer to this automatically-collected information as Device Information."
We collect Device Information using the following technologies:
- "Cookies" are data files that are placed on your device or computer and often include an anonymous unique identifier. For more information about cookies, and how to disable cookies, visit http://www.allaboutcookies.org.
- "Log files" track actions occurring on the Site, and collect data including your IP address, browser type, Internet service provider, referring/exit pages, and date/time stamps.
- "Web beacons," "tags," and "pixels" are electronic files used to record information about how you browse the Site.
Additionally when you make a purchase or attempt to make a purchase through the Site, we collect certain information from you, including your name, billing address, shipping address, payment information (including credit card numbers), email address, and phone number. We refer to this information as "Order Information."
- Users who are undertaking a course as part of a group or organization have certain data tracked as part of the service we provide to Clients and Facilitators. This includes information showing if you have logged in and when, dates of completion and what and when particular study topics, resources and assessments were viewed and completed. We refer to this information as "Student Access Information"
When we talk about "Personal Information" in this Privacy Policy, we are talking about Device Information, Order Information and Student Access Information.
HOW DO WE USE YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION?
We use the Order Information that we collect generally to fulfill any orders placed through the Site (including processing your payment information, arranging for shipping, and providing you with invoices and/or order confirmations). Additionally, we use this Order Information to:
- Communicate with you;
- Screen our orders for potential risk or fraud; and
- When in line with the preferences you have shared with us, provide you with information or advertising relating to our products or services.
We use Student Access Information to provide accurate tracking to Users and Clients on completion and use of the courses, as well as for analysis on how to improve our services.
We use the Device Information that we collect to help us screen for potential risk and fraud (in particular, your IP address), and more generally to improve and optimize our Site (for example, by generating analytics about how our customers browse and interact with the Site, and to assess the success of our marketing and advertising campaigns).
SHARING YOUR PERSONAL INFORMATION
We share your Personal Information with third parties to help us use your Personal Information, as described above. For example, with your employer who needs to verify your completion or progress of your studies. We also use Google Analytics to help us understand how our customers use the Site--you can read more about how Google uses your Personal Information here: https://www.google.com/intl/en/policies/privacy/. You can also opt-out of Google Analytics here: https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout.
Finally, we may also share your Personal Information to comply with applicable laws and regulations, to respond to a subpoena, search warrant or other lawful request for information we receive, or to otherwise protect our rights.
BEHAVIOURAL ADVERTISING
As described above, we use your Personal Information to provide you with targeted advertisements or marketing communications we believe may be of interest to you. For more information about how targeted advertising works, you can visit the Network Advertising Initiative's ("NAI") educational page at https://www.networkadvertising.org/understanding-online-advertising/how-does-it-work.
You can opt out of targeted advertising by:
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/settings/?tab=ads
- Google: https://www.google.com/settings/ads/anonymous
Additionally, you can opt out of some of these services by visiting the Digital Advertising Alliance's opt-out portal at: http://optout.aboutads.info.
DO NOT TRACK
Please note that we do not alter our Site's data collection and use practices when we see a Do Not Track signal from your browser.
YOUR RIGHTS
If you are a European resident, you have the right to access personal information we hold about you and to ask that your personal information be corrected, updated, or deleted. If you would like to exercise this right, please contact us through the contact information below.
Additionally, if you are a European resident we note that we are processing your information in order to fulfill contracts we might have with you (for example if you make an order through the Site), or otherwise to pursue our legitimate business interests listed above. Additionally, please note that your information will be transferred outside of Europe, including to Canada and the United States.
DATA RETENTION
When you place an order through the Site, we will maintain your Order Information and Student Access Information for our records unless and until you ask us to delete this information. We are required to keep course completion records for at least 5 years in order to comply with certain accreditation requirements.
CHANGES
We may update this privacy policy from time to time in order to reflect, for example, changes to our practices or for other operational, legal or regulatory reasons.
CONTACT US
For more information about our privacy practices, if you have questions, or if you would like to make a complaint, please contact us by e-mail at [email protected] or by mail using the details provided below:
5890 Monkland Avenue, #16, Montreal, QC, H4A 1G2, Canada
Last Updated: September 2018