Let Your Newborn Sleep in an Open Drawer

Forget the expensive baby bedding and fancy crib – just let your baby snooze in an open dresser drawer. Okay, we’re exaggerating, but you don’t need to buy the most expensive bassinet, crib, and comforter set. Sure, decorating the nursery can be fun, but it might not be in your child’s best interest to get too fancy.

Image: Walmart

To reduce the risk of SIDS and suffocation, it’s recommended that newborns sleep in a crib with just a tight, firm mattress and a fitted sheet. That means no stuffed animals, blankets, or other bedding.

And skip the matching crib bumper. You might think that a bumper pad will protect your baby, but a study by Washington University School of Medicine found a number of accidental deaths attributed to bumpers – and zero deaths attributed to the lack of them.

Bumper pad deaths can be caused by suffocation (the baby’s face against the bumper, or the head getting stuck between bumper and crib mattress) and strangulation by bumper ties.

So, no matter how tempting it is to splurge on those matching comforters, sheets, bumpers, curtains, bed skirts, wall hangings, and rugs, save yourself a small fortune and get a plain, simple crib instead – or just clean out a spare drawer in your dresser.