If you have a child who sleeps in a crib, take note. IKEA recently announced the recall of some 169,000 crib mattresses, warning consumers that a gap created between the mattress and crib ends that are larger than allowed by federal regulations can pose an entrapment hazard to infants.
The recall comes after the Sweden-based company received two reports of infants becoming trapped between the mattress and an end of a crib. Fortunately, the children were safely removed from the gap and suffered no injuries. However, the defect poses a potentially devastating, even fatal risk to a baby who remains trapped for a lengthy amount of time.
The recall affects IKEA VYSSA style crib mattresses with these five model names:
- VACKERT
- VINKA
- SPELEVINK
- SLÖA
- SLUMMER
All were manufactured on May 4, 2014 or earlier and sold at IKEA stores nationwide and online from August 2010 to May 2014 for about $100. To confirm whether your IKEA crib mattress is affected by the recall, check for an identification label attached to the mattress cover that has the date of manufacture in Month-DD-YYYY format and the VYSSA model name. In any case, a general safety rule is to check for a gap that is larger than a two-finger width between the mattress and the crib ends.
If your baby’s crib mattress is among those affected by the recall and there have been no injuries, return it to any IKEA store for a replacement or full refund. However, if your child has suffered injuries that you believe may have been caused by the defect, call 407-999-8995 and speak with an experienced product liability or personal injury attorney with Orlando’s Todd E. Copeland & Associates.
