OTTAWA — Health Canada considered telling consumers this week to immediately stop using the recalled Stork Craft cribs until repair kits arrived, but opted against doing so partly out of fear that parents would bring their babies into bed with them.

One day after the U.S. Product Safety Commission said parents should immediately stop using the crib and wait for the repair kit to immobilize the side rail, Health Canada told parents to carefully inspect the hardware and only stop using the crib if the hardware showed signs of damage or if the drop-side was installed up-side down.

When asked Thursday about the difference in approaches, Paul Glover, Health Canada's assistant deputy minister for consumer safety, defended the government's advice.

"We were very concerned about unsafe sleeping practices," Glover told a Senate committee studying the government's consumer-product safety bill.

Glover cited evidence showing babies would be at a greater risk co-sleeping with parents than if they continued using a properly assembled crib with undamaged hardware.

An Ontario review of infant deaths in 2006 and 2007 released this year found that 77 of 186 were the result of unsafe sleeping practices and, of those, a majority involved so-called co-sleeping.

As a result, Dr. Bert Lauwers, the deputy chief coroner of Ontario, recommended that parents not practise co-sleeping.

This message is consistent with Health Canada's "safe sleep" policy, which was taken into consideration in crafting the recall in Canada; it notes the "safest place for an infant to sleep is alone in a crib."

Proponents of co-sleeping argue the practice promotes bonding between the child and parents and facilitates breastfeeding.

Tawny Brill, a Winnipeg mother of two, used the recalled Stork Craft crib for her first child, now three, and is now using it for her four-month-old for overnight sleeps.

She said she hasn't had any problems with the crib, so she's decided to follow Health Canada's advice to stick with the crib until the repair kit arrives to immobilize the drop-side.

But it doesn't mean Brill isn't confused by the mixed messages, she said.

"I don't really know what's going on. I thought that drop-side cribs were getting banned in the United States. I had no idea that they were even dangerous. I thought that it was convenient that we had it but maybe not."

The global standards organization ASTM International is set to publish new safety standards for cribs so drop-sides no longer meet the requirement. This means drop-side cribs will no longer be offered for sale in Canada and elsewhere in the upcoming year — a de facto ban.

Inez Tenenbaum, chairman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Committee, referred to this development earlier this week when she indicated a formal ban is likely coming in the United States.

In an interview with NBC's The Today Show, Tenenbaum also recommended North American parents purchase a new crib altogether because the repair kit offered in the Stork Craft crib recall is made only of plastic.

Health Canada and Stork Craft Manufacturing are standing by the repair kit.