This week I heard from a mom-to-be who was surprised that she couldn't find a drop-side crib in the stores where she was shopping for her new baby. Since many manufacturers have stopped making drop-side cribs, they're not as widely available even for stores that would still carry them. Some stores, including Toys R Us and Babies R Us, will no longer stock drop-side cribs.
Why the decreased production? Drop-side cribs have been involved in a number of high-profile recalls in recent years, and there are some safety issues with this crib style that are generally considered to outweigh the convenience of having the crib side move down a bit.
ASTM, a product standards group, approved their updated crib safety standards in December 2009. Drop-side cribs are not allowed in the new ASTM standards. Even though those standards are voluntary, many crib manufacturers use them to guide the crib-making process, so it's as good as a ban as far as crib availability goes.
The voluntary ban on drop-side cribs will likely become a legal one in the U.S., though. According to Safe Kids USA, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act of 2008 requires CPSC to create new crib safety standards that are at least as stringent as the voluntary standards. Since CPSIA compliance is mandatory, that would make manufacturing drop-side cribs illegal in the U.S.