I have no desire for babies to be in harms way at any time and I sometimes wish people wouldn’t ask me for my opinion.  This would eliminate a lot of stress for me and the desire to dream of the day someone invents a “common sense” pill that new parents would take daily to help them realize they shouldn’t believe everything they read or hear when it comes to raising their little bundles of joy.  I would also support a more radical, yet effective “common sense” hammer method that would be used in emergency situations before the initial pill form is prescribed.  Recommended treatment would most likely involve one good bop to the top of the head which would, in turn, achieve immediate results.

I had the opportunity to visit with a first time mother recently and she told me she planned to install plumbing tubing around the bars on her baby’s crib because pool noodles were a bit too big and she wanted to know if there were fabrics I might suggest to wrap around the tubing.  Apparently her little princess is “bonking” her head too much on the bars and it’s making her cry.

Without a current and up to date education on “Babies 101” I asked why a bumper pad wouldn’t be easier and I was told, in no uncertain terms, that bumper pads are killing babies.  I hope the look on my face wasn’t inappropriate but there are times I find myself in total disbelief when I hear what’s coming out of the mouths of some people.  When did bumper pads go bad again?  I must have missed a memo but just about the time I was going to go to bat for bumper pads I got to thinking back a bit farther and I know, for a fact, that I didn’t have bumper pads in my crib and I’m still alive.  I don’t remember bonking my head on the bars but maybe this woman’s baby is a bit of a rebel and maybe her plan to install plumbing tubing rather than a bumper pad wasn’t so bad after all.

One would hope, at this point, I could leave well enough alone but I got to thinking about the generations that followed my childhood and I remember an awful lot of the babies I babysat for having bumper pads in their cribs and all of those babies are now adults and very much alive which brought me back to asking just how bad can those bumper pads be.  I realize, after researching the subject a bit, that babies can be strangled by strings from the pads or get snuggled up too close and suffocate which would both be terrible but what is safe?  I sometimes think the overwhelming stacks of information piled onto the pages of the latest and greatest books and internet sites are destined to create confusion among the masses in order to sell products and aid in the elimination of good old common sense.

I don’t have a baby but if I did I would most likely want to keep him or her as safe as I possibly could but I’m not sure if I’d be willing to believe absolutely everything I read or see blazing across my computer screen.  It’s very nice to see these young parents that care so much about their babies want to do what’s best for them and their safety.  I just hope they know when to put the book down and trust a part of their children’s upbringing to common sense.