FRANKFORT, Ky. (Dec. 23, 2003)-The state is revising its safety standards for the bedding used by children in day care.

New bedding standards for certified in-home child care providers will take effect Jan. 1. The Cabinet for Families and Children is proposing similar revisions of bedding standards for day care centers and other licensed providers.

The regulatory changes require that cribs and playpens meet Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) standards in effect since February 1974. Among other things, those standards specify that the spacing between crib slats or poles should be no more than 2 3/8 inches, which is about the width of a soda can.

The changes follow the death of an 8-month-old girl in September at a Northern Kentucky in-home child care facility. Autopsy results showed the child died of suffocation, and a Kenton County coroner said the slats were too widely spaced to meet current safety standards. The home was ordered closed and supervision and safety violations were cited.

Robin Herring, standards branch manager in the cabinet’s child care division, said the child’s death drew attention to the need for clearer standards on bedding safety. Then-current standards required that bedding be "safe" but did not specify what that meant.

"And I think we realized that people were interpreting that in many ways," Herring said.

Similar changes in the regulations that govern licensed child care providers are still being drafted. Final approval of those could take place by mid-2004.

The state regulates four classes of child-care providers: registered homes, which may care for up to three children unrelated to the caregiver; certified homes, which are limited to six unrelated children; licensed homes, limited to 12 unrelated children; and licensed day care centers, where enrollment limits depend on staffing and facilities.

Statewide, there are 9,389 registered providers, 1,135 certified providers and about 2,300 licensed providers. Certified and licensed child care providers are inspected annually.

Herring said that, beginning in January, inspectors of certified homes will begin using cards cut to the maximum approved width to measure distances between crib slats and bars.

If child bedding falls short of the CPSC standards, child care providers will have 30 days to correct the deficiency. Herring said the provider must bear the cost of any replacement bedding.

She said slat spacing shouldn’t be an issue in cribs that are less than 30 years old.

"The problem is, we’ve got a lot of providers out there that don’t necessarily buy new cribs," she said. "They might go to a rummage sale and buy a crib, or you might get an heirloom handed down to you. And it’s those cribs that are out there that are the problem."

Registered child care providers are not subject to state inspection. The child care division will send them information on bedding safety standards and encourage them to comply.

Division staff advise parents to inform themselves about bedding safety standards and inspect the bedding that a child care provider proposes using for their child. Current CPSC standards include the following crib safety features:

• a maximum 2 3/8 inches between the slats or poles to ensure that infants will not slip through feet-first and be caught by the head;
• standardized crib sizes and snugly fitting mattresses so that a child cannot become wedged between the sides of a crib and the mattress;
• a rail height of 26 inches from the top of the railing to the mattress support at its lowest level to help prevent infants from falling out of the crib.

The following Web sites contain additional bedding safety tips: