Every so often, as I watch my son play basketball or sing in a school production, I flash back to the day in 2001 when he flopped as an infant over the top of his crib railing and fell to the floor. By sheer luck, and the physical properties of momentum, the little guy must have done a full rotation in the air and landed squarely on his bottom.

Today's online report in Pediatrics is a reminder of that good fortune. Between 1990 and 2008, approximately 181,654 children younger than 2 years of age were treated in U.S. emergency rooms for injuries related to cribs, playpens and bassinets. Two-thirds of those injuries were falls from cribs.

The estimated toll: 37,883 concusions, 61,239 soft tissue injuries (muscles, tendons, etc.), 25,578 lacerations, 21,573 fractures, 33,128 other injuries.

Nearly half involved injuries to the head and neck. While the vast majority resulted in children being treated at emergency rooms and released, an estimated 2,140 children died. The authors called current prevention strategies "clearly insufficient" and recommended improved designs of cribs, playpens and bassinets.

"These products ... are intended to be secure locations where parents can place their infant and walk away knowing their child is safe and protected even while alone and unattended," the study authors wrote. "However, as evidenced by the more than 9 million cribs that have been recalled by the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) since September 2007 because of safety issues, cribs are not always as safe as parents believe."

In December, the CPSC issued its first updated safety guidance on crib designs in nearly 30 years. The commission among other things banned the production of any more cribs with drop-sides (railings that can lower to make it easier for parents to lift babies out). All cribs sold in the U.S. must comply with the new standards by this June, and all child-care facilities and homes have two years to ensure that all of their cribs are compliant.