Major Retailers Announce They’ll Stop Selling These Popular Baby Products Nearly a Year After Experts Expressed Safety Concerns

Rebecca Rakowitz
·2 min read

Major retailers including Amazon, Target, and Babylist decided to prioritize baby safety over profit when they announced this week that they will no longer sell weighted baby blankets, weighted sleep sacks, and weighted swaddles. The decision comes nearly a year after pediatric safety experts called for a closer examination of these weighted sleep products and the risks they pose to babies.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has discouraged the use of weighted sleepwear in their safe sleep guidelines — which help reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) — and last June they wrote a letter to the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and ASTM International saying the weight of the potentially-fatal products could hypothetically make it harder for babies to wake up in response to hazards like a lack of oxygen.

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Though there is no definitive peer-reviewed research saying that is indeed the case, the AAP encouraged the CPSC and ASTM International to take “a precautionary approach” to weighted sleepwear “to avoid a repeat” of the tragic infant fatalities that have happened due to inclined sleepers, in-bed sleepers, and the likes.

“You should prove safety before you put a product out there,” Dr. Michael Goodstein, MD a member of the task force on SIDS said at the time. “You shouldn’t be proving it after kids die.”

Per Consumer Reports, Amazon and Target say the enforcement of this new policy will begin soon. Babylist told the outlet its policy has already gone into effect.

Oriene Shin, policy counsel for Consumer Reports said in a statement that it’s “promising” to see major retailers make “the right decision” based on the recommendations of experts.

“Too often, products that contradict clear expert guidance are for sale for years and end up putting babies and children at serious risk,” Shin continued. “Parents deserve nothing less than products that are proven safe before entering the marketplace. All retailers and online platforms should immediately stop selling these concerning products.”

Last December, Amazon, Target, and Walmart made a similar move when they decided to stop selling water beads that are “marketed toward children” after safety experts sounded the alarm on the sensory toys. The beads expand in water and, if ingested, would do so inside a person’s body. This could have severe and fatal ramifications.

“The risks can’t be ignored,” Michael Alfonzo, MD, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital and Weill Cornell Medicine said at the time. “If you have a child under the age of 3, I wouldn’t have them in my home.”

Before you go, check out recent baby product recalls and what to do if you’re impacted.

 

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