Sheriff's Office distributes safe, free cribs to families in need

A good crib can save a baby's life.

That's a simple truth that's validated by medical and forensic research and the experience of law-enforcement officers called to investigate the deaths of infants or children.

To that end, the King County Sheriff's Office is partnering with the Northwest Infant Survival Alliance to distribute safe, simple and free cribs to families that lack an appropriate, protected place for a sleeping baby.

The partnership and launch of the new program, Cribs for Kids, was announced at a news conference in the sheriff's office Friday.

According to Metropolitan King County Councilmember Kathy Lambert, the infant mortality rate in the county is on the rise, with 26 sudden unexpected crib deaths in 2008; there were 13 such deaths in 2007.

Statewide, 400 infants died last year and in one-quarter of those cases, the cause and manner of death were never determined, said Deborah Robinson, of the Northwest Infant Survival Alliance.

Nevertheless, King County Sheriff Sue Rahr said some of those deaths almost certainly could have been prevented.

She said there are risk factors, including the lack of a simple, separate sleeping space, that increase a child's chance of an early death.

Years of research show that the best and safest way for a baby to sleep is on his or her back in a blanket sleeper in a completely empty crib, according to Robinson.

Couches, floors, beanbag chairs, cluttered surfaces, adult beds and family beds are not safe places for babies to sleep, Robinson said. Neither, it turns out, are the beautifully appointed cribs with bumper pads and a cache of stuffed animals.

In announcing the program on National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Awareness Day, Rahr said it makes sense for the Sheriff's Office to distribute the cribs.

Deputies called in on other matters may see an infant in an unsafe sleeping arrangement.

Rahr recalled serving a search warrant on alleged gang members years ago and walking into a house where a baby had been put down to sleep on a feces-covered floor next to a rabbit hutch.

Had the program to provide cribs been available then, she said, she would have made sure that family got one.

Christine Clarridge: 206-464-8983 or cclarridge@seattletimes.com