Know what I’m talking about? The ever-dangerous crib bumper, of course.

Because of the potential for suffocation, entrapment, and strangulation and lack of evidence to support that bumper pads or similar products that attach to crib slats or sides prevent injury in young infants, the AAP (American Academy of Pediatrics) does not recommend their use.*

I’m not a huge risk-taker, especially when it comes to my baby, and yet I do still use the bumper that came as part of our crib bedding set. (In Skip Hop’s defense, they do now offer a set that comes without the bumper.) But I must say this: even though most reports indicate that the average baby doesn’t have the strength it would take to hurt themselves against the side of a bumper-free crib, I beg to differ.

There is rarely an instance in which I walk into Miles’s room to find him calmly on his back in the middle of the crib where I left him. More often, he has somehow managed to roll over, rotate 45 degrees, and finagle his way into a corner–sometimes legs up in the air or neck craned so it looks like he’s mid-sit-up.

I am by no means encouraging parents to run out and get crib bumpers, but I genuinely believe that my very active four month old needs some kind of protection from himself. That kid…

* SIDS and Other Sleep-Related Infant Deaths