So many crib designs! Which one?

[atgcpaul]

After several years of trying, we are blessed to be expecting our first child at
the end of June. I've been going back and forth on making the crib myself but
I've decided to go for it. Nothing like a deadline to keep me motivated.

My first inclination was to build the Wood 3-in-1 crib. Seems pretty
straightforward and I like that it will be used for a long time. The only thing
about it is it doesn't have a drop front which would allow my wife who is 5'4"
easier access to the baby. If you built or bought a crib that doesn't have a
drop front, do you or your height challenged spouses have issues picking up
the baby?

Thanks,
Paul

[LCHIEN]

the drop side is very convenient for short people picking the kids up from the crib bed.

My other recommendation is to pay close attention to safety issues - the ones that come up often are close spacing of the crib vertical rails to prevent getting heads stuck and strangled and a close fit between the mattress and the sides of the crib so that baby's head won't get stuck in the gap and suffocate. and pinch points etc. You sure don't want your baby injured by YOUR crib, much less any crib.

I haven't looked but i would assume Rockler and others have crib kits with the vertical slides for the drop sides with the spring loaded foot release/latch and metal frame you find on the commercial models. That would help with the mattress sizing and the drop side safely protected from inadvertant operation by baby or other.

[parnelli]

IIRC the manufacturers have all agreed to discontinue making drop side cribs. As I remember reading, the vast majority of the issues were with drop side cribs. No single manuf was willling to stop for fear of lost sales, but the manuf association decided there was no design they had come up with that was acceptable.

The replacement design is apparently going to be that the front of the crib will have a horizontal member about half way up, and that the top half of the front will hinge down toward the parent for access.


found it:http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/n...,1578820.story

[LCHIEN]

Hmmm, I wasn't aware that drop side cribs were such a problem, but then, my kids are now 24 and 28 Y.O. and survived the crib.

OTOH, I ALWAYS kept the hardware tight and checked frequently as i do with other furniture and fixtures in my house, anything loose gets tigntened immediately.
But, I do see other places where stuff has worked loose and people keep using it loose to where the holes all get wallowed out and the threads stripped.

I suppose a baby crib in their house would be no different and used until the side fell down and strangled their kid.

excuse my old advice.

[Kristofor]

+1 on what Parnelli said...

There are kits available to build a drop-side crib but it seems that every month or two there's another recall where 3 babies were killed and another 19 "near misses" were reported. Often times these were caused by broken/mis-assembled units but still the frequency and perpetually issued new recalls would be enough to make me think again. Of course I and my siblings lived through the use of such a crib along with millions of others so perhaps the risk is overblown but it's an easy one to avoid...

An option you would have building this yourself rather than purchasing would be to use fixed sides, but to lower the whole unit perhaps 6-8". This would allow the sides to be just as high relative to the mattress where the baby will be, but the top of the crib would be at a height more appropriate for your wife.

Or, you could simply build a low/wide step that could sit in front of the crib if you wanted to stay with more traditional proportions on the crib itself.

[thrytis]

A compromise between drop front and fixed front cribs is where the top 6-10 inches is hinged and swings down. I don't think i've seen them at Babies R Us, but i have at some higher end stores. We have a fixed front and have never had a problem, but neither of us are particularly short.

An example of one can be found here.

[chabin76]

Neither my wife nor I are short, but my mother-in-law is only 5'2" at most. She has picked up our children out of the crib without any real problems. If you incorporate a way to raise and lower the mattress than when the baby is young you can move the mattress up higher so that your wife does not have to bend over so far. By the time that you have to really lower the mattress down really far, your child will be able to stand up in the crib and your wife can pick him up that way. We have a drop down side on our crib and after 4 kids, I think that we can used the feature 5-10 times and never really needed it.

Good luck.

[charliex]

I just completed building the Wood 3in1 crib using red oak instead of maple. This is the first and only thing I have ever built from plans. Hope I never have to do it again. I like to engineer things as I build and where the dimensions are not "hammered in stone". The problem with this construct is that it needs to fit around the mattress support, the dimensions of which are not in your control.
There's about 160 wood parts and the finished cost was close to $400.00. I slightly over bought the oak using the cut list as a guide. What I found is that the cut list over estimates the lumber needed. Fortunatily I use oak quite often so the excess in my lumber rack is not a problem.
For equipment you will need a TS, BS, Jointer, Planer and RT. If you can get wood that is straight and true you may not need the jointer. The 32 slats and 38 spacers are 3/8" thick. This is where the BS and planer are almost necessary, as they need to fit tight in the rail slots. There is a call for a DP but you can make drill jigs to drill all holes with a hand drill.
The threaded inserts that come with the hardware kit are too short and pulled into the plywood rails. I found a local blacksmith shop to turn longer ones adding $27.00 to the cost.
I figured it would take 3 weeks to complete, but at times I have trouble getting out of my chair so it took almost 8 weeks. It was a good project and my daughter and SIL were thrilled with the crib. The granddaughter has not arrived yet so I don't know what her opinion will be.
If I can be of any help PM me.
Chas

PS. The mattress support adjusts to 3 different levels so as the child grows you lower the mattress. Easy to reach in at it's highest and not easy to climb out at it's lowest.

[BadeMillsap]

I built the Rockler 3 in 1 and it does have a drop side

You can see my result here

I'm aware of the hoopla about drop sides at present in the news BUT ... I believe a lot of this is parents not being as careful as they might be ... regardless I found the plans to be well written ... I did modify to fit my design ideas and am looking forward now to the time when the toddler bed is required as the extra pieces are taking up storage in the storage building ...

PM me if you have questions ...

[JR]

Well, the answer lies in what me be the wildest goose chase ever. Ryan F's crib is the standard against which all others are compaered. Unfortunately, the pics are long lost. Has anyone kept contact with Ryan?

Side note: has it really been seven years since that was posted? Yikes!

JR

[chopnhack]

First off... CONGRATS!!!

To your questions: Drop side is something you might want to reconsider for yet another reason that no one else has touched upon yet... sleeping children can be easily stirred and even if the action is smooth, there can still be some jarring with the opening and closing of the "rail". You don't want that!
Yet another reason to consider not building a crib of this style is the complexity moving parts throws into the equation.

As for a stool, I am partial to that idea and have built one for that very purpose (or somewhat similar) http://www.bt3central.com/showthread.php?t=44231

[crokett]

I built a drop-side crib that both my daughters slept in. We rarely ever dropped the side though, discovered we didn't need to. Making it a drop side did add some complications as far as hardware goes. Another thing to consider is how easy it will be to take apart. That crib was in 2 houses and neither house had a doorway wide enough for it to be moved assembled.

[master53yoda]

I made this crib for my grandson last year, his mom is 5'3" and has no problem getting the baby out.

[parnelli]

A compromise between drop front and fixed front cribs is where the top 6-10 inches is hinged and swings down. I don't think i've seen them at Babies R Us, but i have at some higher end stores. We have a fixed front and have never had a problem, but neither of us are particularly short.

An example of one can be found here.

The article I posted didn't have that in it, but that's exactly what I was trying to describe-

That apparently is going to be the way they're all going to be made once they stop making the current kind.

With the exception to the posssibility of pinching the childs fingers when closing, it seems so much more of a simple solution to the problem then the current drop side design.

[thrytis]

With the exception to the posssibility of pinching the childs fingers when closing, it seems so much more of a simple solution to the problem then the current drop side design.

Sorry, i missed that in your first post.

If you use a piano hinge and bevel where the hinge attaches on both pieces (so the hinge never closes all the way), the only pinch points are the ends. I'm sure someone will pinch their kids fingers in it still and eventually these will be banned too.