I'm a mortician — this parenting hack could kill your baby

Jun 25, 2023

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A mortician is giving parents a dire warning in a bid to prevent cradles from becoming graves.

An American mom named Lauren, who also works as an undertaker, is telling parents to stop using crib tents, contraptions used to keep children from crawling out of their cribs, The Sun reported.

Lauren, who goes by Lauren the Mortician on TikTok, posted a stitch with another mom and content creator detailing the dangers in a video posted earlier this week with over 2 million views.

In the video, the fellow mom assembles a crib nest over a baby’s crib as text across the screen reads: “Will this keep my 2 years old from climbing out of his crib?”

Lauren, who says other moms were tagging her in the mom’s video and asking her about safety, advocated for research.

“I also agree with doing some research and making sure that the products we use are safe,” she said. “Because a lot of these products are not regulated.”

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She found out that crib nests are not regulated and can be very dangerous.

“I want you to know that children have died in these contraptions. What ends up happening is a couple of different things,” she said.

“One, that top part gets pulled down, it rips, or somehow the child gets wrapped up in it,” she added.

Lauren then went on to warn parents about other deaths and serious injuries that have occurred as a result of using a crib nest.

“Another way a fatality occurred was a child got their head stuck in the side with the crib net and their head was like under the mattress,” she said.

“And then a third way that a child was severely injured was there’s these poles that go up and around in the nets,” she added.

She said that another child got one of the poles out of the crib nest and punctured himself and now has “lasting lifelong damage.”

Lauren doesn’t blame parents for using crib nests and said she used one with her son when he was younger before she was aware of the dangers.

She told fellow parents she never would have bought a crib nest if she knew the risks associated with it.

“If I knew then what I know now, I never would have bought one of these things,” she said.

“I’m telling you from experience that these satin bows do come apart pretty easily. Why they made them out of satin, I’ll never know,” she said.

A simple Google search on the safety of crib tents shows several articles with safety warnings.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a recall of crib tents from distributor Tots in Mind, but many others exist on the market, Verywell Family reported.

“Other brands of crib tents remain on the market. Does that mean these products are safe? Don’t bet on it,” warns the site.

Lauren said that parents who do use crib tents should check them for defects.

She then offered alternative solutions for parents who don’t want their parents to climb out of the crib such as using a floor bed.

Parents in Lauren’s comments section thanked her for checking on the safety of the popular parenting hack and shared horror stories of their own.

“My toddler climbed out and broke his foot. Immediately moved him to a big bed and secured his door essentially making his room a big crib,” wrote one parent.

“omg I actually thought this was a good idea, please don’t stop making these videos I see everything more carefully because of your videos,” said another mom.