Practice Area Title
Overview
Of all the consumer products on the market, parents should never have to fear infant products. Parents do thorough research based on products, brands, and safety. Infant sleepers should be made with the highest quality material and should be made to safely secure infants. Unfortunately, manufacturers, distributers, and retailers put children at risk through improper warning, improper testing, defective products, and failure to provide a safe product. Infant sleeper death can occur even when parents have taken every precaution.
Manufacturers place your infant in harms way every time it does not conduct proper testing. Parents often blame themselves after an infant sleeper accident. For a long time, doctors blamed sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS). Sadly, years later, parents finally learned the truth. Infant sleeper accidents were not due to parental mistakes or sudden infant death syndrome, but infant sleeper products. The manufacturers never actually medically tested or vetted the infant sleeper before releasing the product to the public. Some sleepers have be found to be unsafe products that caused infants traumatic injuries. If your infant has been harmed by an infant sleeper, contact us today.
Manufacturers are required to test and sell safe products. Manufacturers must sell products that are free of defects. Disgustingly, infant sleeper manufacturers were selling products that were unsafe and untested. Infant sleepers companies lined their own pockets without caring about the safety of your infant. Consumer Reports confirmed that licensed medical professions did not approve of the infant sleeper safety standards and did not recommend infant sleeper products.
Infant Sleeper Oversight
The American Academy of Pediatrics (“AAP”) instructs parents to place their infant on his/her back to sleep. Additionally, the AAP instructs parents to place their infant flat on their back on a firm surface without bedding or bumpers. Infant sleepers methodology directly contradicts the medical findings and instructions of the AAP and disregards AAP’s sleep recommendations for infants.
Kids In Danger
A children and infant safety advocate group called Kids in Danger estimates that it takes an average of 14 incident reports of design flaws, certain failures, and two injured children to pull a dangerous child product from the market.
In April of 2019, the CPSC received several cases of infant deaths and recalled around 4.7 million baby sleepers. The brand behind the recall was the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play baby sleeper. Tragically, sleepers harmed dozens of children. It took tragedy to force manufacturers to recall the sleeper. At least 32 infants died as the result of the Rock ‘n Play infant sleeper. Since 2009, major retailers have sold infant sleepers. The CPSC concluded that infant deaths occurred after the infants rolled from from the infant’s back to their stomach. Additionally, deaths occurred when an unrestrained infant slipped to their side or by some other manner of suffocation, strangulation, or entrapment.
Following the Fisher-Price recall in April 2019, the CPSC continues to investigate all baby sleepers with inclines. In Fall 2018, at least 26 U.S. companies sold a baby sleeper that contained an incline in their product. Another manufacturer of the baby sleeper is Kids II. Kids II has also recalled its baby sleeper.
Infant Sleeper Injury Statistics
Since 2005, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (“CPSC”) has received over 700 reports of injuries caused by and related to infant sleepers. Many sleeper recalls were issued. The recalls linked inclined infant sleeper products to suffocation, strangulation, and entrapment.
The AAP advises that an infant sleeper’s incline angle directly correlates to the infant’s struggle to breathe. The AAP determined that infant injury and death occurs when either the infant’s head position or the infant’s face contact with the infant sleeper fabric. Additionally, the straps used on the baby sleeper may pose strangulation problem.
AAP blames the baby sleeper angle for infant injuries and death. Outside the U.S., a Canadian statute bans manufacturers from selling infant sleeper products with an angle of more than 7 degrees. Some U.S. infant sleepers contain an angle of 30 degrees. The CPSC reports that some infant deaths occurred when an infant went unrestrained or when the sleeper became unstable and tipped over.
Infant Sleeper Recalls
The CPSC will issue a recall for a product when if it can determine a “substantial product hazard.” The safety commission considers consumer injury risks, severity of risk, and exposure injury is obvious to consumers, the severity of that risk and how many people are exposed to the product. The CPSC claims that most recalls are voluntary. A recall may be prompted by a manufacturer reaching out to the CPSC to discuss safety concerns. Conversely, the CPSC could force the manufacturer to stop selling its product and the CPSC can issue a mandatory recall and threaten to sue the manufacturer if the defective product is not removed from the market place.
Deceptive Marketing
American consumers rely on the packaging of consumer goods. When a manufacturer fails to warn or issues a statement about its product that is false or misleading, it can significantly impact and cause traumatic results for consumers. Fisher-Price’s Rock ‘n Play packaging contained the words “inclined sleeper designed for all-night sleep.” Additionally, Fisher-Price’s website advertised that also claimed its product could be for “naptime and nighttime.” Disgustingly, Fisher-Price paid Gary Deegear, M.D., to assess the safety its sleeper. Dr. Deegear claimed that infants may benefit from sleeping in an infant sleeper because it may help babies with acid reflux.
Notably, Dr. Deegear is not a pediatrician. Dr. Deegear is not a sleep specialist. Dr. Deegear’s untested assertion that the infant sleeper was safe product is untrue. The AAP and National Institute of Child Health and Human Development are organizations that are against allowing infants to sleep in an unsupervised and reclined position. Incline sleep for children may cause a child to suffocate, and increases the risks while restrained. Deceptive marketing can lead to a product liability lawsuit because parents would never knowingly buy an untested or unsafe infant product.
News & Resources
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome | Infant Death | https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2019/11/01/stop-using-all-inclined-sleepers-warns-federal-safety-agency-death-toll-hits/