M.R.
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Chicago
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Have you dropped the mattress to the lowest setting?
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I have a 7 month old baby and all he wants to do is jump out of his crib. He's been doing this for weeks now, I have removed his thick cotton bumper and tried a breathable bumper but that did not help. He uses it to pull himself up and to try to jump out. Im not too sure what to do. He has bruises all over his forehead from pulling himself up and falling on the slates of the crib. I need a solution, and will try anything please help.
Have you dropped the mattress to the lowest setting?
Get rid of the bumpers. He is just learning to stand and bounce, so it is
a game. I do not think he is trying to jump out of the crib. The steadier
he gets the less he will hit is head.
You don't really need a bumper and lots of people and doctors say no bumpers at all. (I used one personally- my son would get his arms and legs through the slats and then try to roll over.) You could try taking it out.
Is yours really squish-able so that he isn't able to get a boost up? I made sure my son's was super soft so that it didn't give him a step. Definitely make sure the mattress is as low as possible. If he is actually able to get out of the crib, they make crib tents that keep them in. They sell them at Babies R Us.
Now as far as the bruises- they just go with the territory with a baby once they start pulling up. I hated bringing my baby out with purple and green bumps all over his head, but it is normal. You can't prevent them by taking away thier ability to pull up, they just have to get through this stage. I was particularly horrified to bring him to the doc that way, but when I did, she came in the room and said "OH! Look who's pulling up! What a big boy you are!" as she pointed to the bruises. She said it was all part of it, and she would be concerned if she never saw any bruises, that would mean he either wasn't developing correctly or else I wasn't allowing him to develop correctly. Mine pulled up early and had zero control over it for the longest time. He cruised on the furniture the same week he started crawling, but spent more time doing face plants than cruising for the first couple weeks. So try not to let it stress you out. He is fine, he is just learning.
You've got to take the bumpers out. Not only are bumpers not necessary, they are dangerous, both in terms of a breathing impediment and for the obvious problem you are having now. There's not much you can do in terms of the baby pulling himself up on the crib sides. All babies do that and unfortunately, there are a lot of bumps and bruises that come along with that. Once he's more sturdy, he won't fall as much.
Other than giving him a helmet, not much to do (and I'm joking about the helmet....)
