Retail giants Amazon and Walmart, among others, have stopped selling weighted infant sleep products over safety fears.
(NEXSTAR) – Retail giants Amazon and Walmart, among others, have stopped selling weighted infant sleep products over safety fears.
Weighted sleep sacks and swaddles purportedly help the child sleep more soundly – and the parents too – but experts from the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) and various government bodies warn against using them.
“These products are associated with concerning reductions in oxygen saturation levels in infants,” Richard L. Trumka Jr., commissioner of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), said in a statement. “This means there is evidence that the use of weighted sleep products on infants can lead to lower oxygen levels, which if sustained, may be harmful to the developing infant’s brain. I’ve sat with the parents of a child who died in one of these products, and I carry their grief with me. I share their desire to make sure no one else suffers the fate that their family did.”
The AAP said there is currently no evidence showing that the sleepwear is effective, and expressed concern that such products could instead contribute to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) but preventing infants from moving freely during sleep. The CSPC said in an April release that "there are multiple infant deaths in these products."
Amazon pulled the products on April 9, 2024, telling Nexstar, "We work hard to ensure the products offered in our store are safe, and we have teams dedicated to developing and updating our policies, evaluating listings, and continuously monitoring our store to prevent unsafe and noncompliant products from being listed.”
A Walmart spokesperson told Nexstar that the company hadn't carried weighted infant sleepwear items "for almost a year."
Some baby clothing retailers like Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean maintain that the sleep products are safe.
"We're a small business, and at this point it's the United States government against Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean," Tara Williams, CEO of Dreamland Baby told NPR. "This is not a new product category. It's been out for over 10 years. There's over 3.5 million [products] sold with no pattern of hazard."
In late April, Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) called for a federal investigation into Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean, accusing the manufacturers of deceptive advertising practices.
"The stakes are simply too high to allow weighted infant sleep products to be advertised as 'safe,' especially without a clear disclaimer explaining the lack of an agreed-upon standard for determining safety," Blumenthal wrote in a letter to the Federal Trade Commission.
Experts recommend parents who are currently using a weighted sleep sack swap it out immediately.
