At the end of this month, all play yards sold in the United States must meet the new and improved federal safety standard designed to prevent injuries and deaths to children.
The new federal standard addresses hazards associated with play yard side rails, corner brackets, and mattress attachments. These changes are meant to prevent strangulation, entrapment, lacerations, and other injuries.
New tests add to existing requirements that include a stability test to prevent the play yard from tipping over, latch and lock mechanisms to keep the play yard from folding on a child when it is being used, and minimum side height requirements to prevent children from getting out of the play yard on their own.
More information about the new play yard standard is at CPSC's OnSafety blog. More information about keeping babies safe in their sleeping environments is at the Crib Information Center on CPSC's website.
Source: Consumer Product Safety Commission, February 2013
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