How to set up a safe crib in a rental house

Your own house is safe because you made it safe, slowly, without really noticing. You tied up that cord. You moved the lamp. You spotted the gap behind the crib one evening and pushed it against the wall. None of that has happened in the house you're walking into on Saturday.

This is what I check before I leave a crib in somebody's rental. It takes about five minutes, and it's worth doing whether the crib came from us, from the owner's closet, or out of the back of your own car. Then you can stop thinking about it, which is really the point.

First: the crib itself

If it is not our crib, look at four things before you use it.

• Drop side. If one side slides down, do not use it. Drop-side cribs have been illegal to sell or resell in the US since 2011 because of entrapment and strangulation deaths. Beach houses are exactly where they survive.
• Slat spacing. A soda can should not fit between the slats. That is the field version of the 2⅜" rule.
• Mattress fit. No more than two adult fingers should fit between the mattress and the frame at any point. A gap swallows an arm.
• Anything broken or missing. Cracked slat, missing bolt, wobble when you push it. If in doubt, do not use it. A travel crib on the floor beats a compromised crib every time.

Then: what is in the crib

Nothing. That is the whole answer, and it is the hardest one to follow on vacation because everybody brings a comfort item.

A firm flat mattress, a tight fitted sheet, and your baby. No bumpers, mesh ones included. No pillows, no comforters, no loose blankets, no positioners, no wedges. Sleep sack instead of blankets. Under twelve months, this is not a preference, it is the actual guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

Beach-house variant: the stuffed animal that came for the trip lives on the dresser, not in the crib.

Now the room, in order

1. Blind and curtain cords

The single most dangerous thing in a typical rental bedroom, and the one we move cribs for most often. A looped cord within reach of a crib is a strangulation hazard, full stop. Either the crib moves out of reach, or the cord gets wrapped high and secured to its cleat. Beach houses are full of old blinds with long cords, because the sun matters and nobody replaces working blinds.

2. Windows

Move the crib away from the window. Two reasons: cords, again, and window units. A lot of LBI bedrooms have a window air conditioner that blows directly across the room at head height, and a baby sleeping in that airstream all night will wake up cold and stuffy.

Also: check the screens. Old shore-house screens push out more easily than you would like.

3. Furniture the crib is next to

Anything a standing toddler can grab from inside the crib is a candidate for pulling in or pulling over. Lamps with cords, chargers, water glasses, and the classic one, the little bedside table with a wobbly leg. Clear a two-foot moat.

4. Heat

Overheating is a real SIDS risk factor and second-floor LBI bedrooms in August get hot. Aim for a room that feels comfortable to an adult in light clothing, dress the baby in one more layer than you are wearing, skip the hat indoors, and use a fan for air movement if there is no AC. A fan is genuinely protective, and the ventilation association in the research is one of the more robust findings.

5. The floor around the crib

Sand, obviously. But also: outlet covers are rare in rentals, and beach houses have a lot of outlets at floor level. If your child is mobile, a pack of covers costs a few dollars and takes two minutes. Bring some.

The beach-house specials

Things that only turn up in shore rentals, all of which we have found:

• Open or half-height stair rails. Older houses, wide baluster gaps. A crib is fine; a mobile toddler at 6am is not. Bring a travel gate if your house has stairs.
• Sliders onto a deck. Often unlocked, sometimes with a step straight down. Check the latch height.
• Outdoor showers. Standing water, slippery boards, a door latch a toddler can work.
• Bunk rooms. If a crib is going in a bunk room, put it away from the bottom bunk, because the ladder is climbable from inside a crib rail by an ambitious two-year-old.
• That one cabinet. Every rental has a low kitchen cabinet with somebody's cleaning products in it. Look before you unpack.

Where the crib should go

If you can, put the crib in the room you are sleeping in for the first night or two, even if the plan is separate rooms. The AAP recommends room-sharing without bed-sharing for at least the first six months, and on vacation there is a practical argument on top of the safety one: a strange house is a strange house, and proximity buys everyone sleep.

When we deliver, we will put the crib wherever you want it and then, if we can see a better wall, say so. Most people take the suggestion. Nobody has ever minded being asked.

The two-minute version

1. Crib empty. Mattress, sheet, baby. Nothing else.
2. Away from windows, blind cords, and the AC airstream.
3. Nothing grabbable within arm's reach of the rail.
4. Room comfortable, not warm. Fan if in doubt.
5. If the house's own crib has a drop side, do not use it.

Then go to the beach. That is what the check is for. It is not there to make you anxious, it is there so you can stop thinking about it.