Shopping for Baby - First Up, a Crib
Post by Tracy in MightyNest Blog
June 16, 2010
Buying a crib seems simple enough, right? I mean sure there are different colors, designs and of course prices but that’s it right? Wrong. I learned very quickly that buying a crib is much more complicated than that. I mean, did you know that toddlers will actually gnaw/bite/chew on their crib? Because that thought hadn’t even crossed my mind until a few weeks ago when a friend of mine casually told me to consider that in my decision-making process.
So, even though I didn’t fully believe her I figured I should take that into account. Ok, so that means that I need a non-toxic crib that is sturdy, stylish, safe to sleep in and safe to chew on. Still pretty simple, right? Wrong again. The whole “safe to chew on” criteria added a whole new level of research and areas that were concerning to me. I now had to find a crib made from materials that I felt comfortable having my child potentially ingest (ewwww - I know, I better get used to it) little parts of.
Here are some things that I learned:
- The crib should be made of solid wood – not particle board, a laminate, veneer, PVC or some other form of plastic.
- The glue used to hold the crib together should be non-toxic.
- The crib should either be unfinished, finished with clear, colorless finishes that you know are non-toxic – or, if painted, with paint that doesn’t contain toxic solvents, dyes and so on.
Why? Well it turns out that materials used to construct cribs often emit formaldehyde which the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ranked as a probable human carcinogen. Translation – not something that I want my baby anywhere near if I can avoid it!
So, after at lot of research we finally bought a Romina crib (in a different finish than showed in the picture) –
- 100% solid wood, never chemically treated. No particle board or MDF is used; everything is free of Formaldehyde and any other cancer causing toxic emanations.
- Water based stains and paints, CPSC certified non-toxic. All finishes are free of VOCs, Lead, Phthalates or any other toxic emanation. Bees Wax organic finish is available for any of our collections.
- Tree sap based organic glues are used for anything that requires adhesives.
All of those factors, combined with a well-timed crib sale, left me very satisfied with my decision. And just in case I needed further assurance, I went to visit my goddaughter this weekend and saw her teeth marks in her crib with my own eyes. I guess I shouldn’t have doubted my friend after all…
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thanks for the heads up - i went to the Goodnight Room NYC website as you suggested and bought the pacific rim crib
Who knew furniture could be so tasty!
I started my research with Healthy Child Healthy World and found a lot of great information there to get me started. I then used a very scientific method of googling any and all keywords I could think of - non toxic cribs, healthy cribs, safe cribs, formaldehyde free cribs, etc, etc. The amount of information I found was overwhelming, yet helpful to wrap my head around the concerns and what to look for in a safe, non-toxic crib.
Naturepedic (an organic cotton mattress company) has a blog post on cribs that I found to be very helpful and that I pulled a lot of my info from. That same post pointed me to Debra Lynn Dadd's website. There's a lot of information to sort through there but it was helpful for me to see what other people had found/were looking for.
And once I found a few companies that manufacture cribs that met my criteria for being completely non-toxic I did more research on those as it relates to safety standards. I also talked extensively with the sales personal at the furniture store we ended up buying our crib at. Based on design and price (helped by the sale on cribs we found) my husband and I knew we liked Romina the best and the good news is I didn't find anything alarming or worrisome as it relates to safety so we were sold.
We did start looking at strollers at the same store but it was WAY too much to take in at the time. Thankfully I married an engineer who is all over the stroller buying decision so I plan to let him run with that one :)
Tracy,
Congrats on picking out the crib. Picking out the crib for our oldest was also stressful because there were so many options and price points, but it was also so much fun to be creating a room for our baby. If you think there are a lot of crib options - wait until you start looking at strollers!
I was wondering what websites/tools you used to do your research and identify companies that made cribs to meet your criteria as well as safety standards?
Also toddlers aren't the only ones chewing on cribs. Our nine month old can pull himself up to standing and apparently the crib is pretty tasty! :)
I actually did look at Pacific Rim, as well, and they are a great company that also fit my criteria of finding a completely non-toxic crib. The Romina crib ended up being almost the same price as the Pacific Rim with the sale that was going on, though, so we picked that one as we preferred the design.
Great information Tracy, thanks for sharing! The chewing of the crib is something I never would have thought of beforehand either. Another great crib choice is Pacific Rim cribs.
I don't think that this line of cribs is an eco-firendly solution at all. Made in Europe? (maybe) Shipping a long distance leaves a large carbon foot print. Americans should be buying locally produced products. I bought a crib from Goodnight Room Nyc because they offered two non-toxic eco-friendly brands made in America. I selected Pacific Rim, made in Oregon and it didn't cost over one thousand dollars like Romina.