The Qualified Warnings End: Just Don't Use Inclined Sleepers

Federal regulators have moved past warning about specific models of inclined sleepers for infants and now say to just not use them at all—any of them. The danger of suffocation is too great. In April, when Fisher-Price’s Rock 'n Play was recalled, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said 40 infant deaths had been connected to sleepers. Now, 73 have been, the Washington Post reports. Other sleepers have been recalled since then, but the agency now wants all of them essentially made illegal by allowing a maximum incline of 10 degrees; most of the products have an incline of about 30 degrees.

The American Academy of Pediatrics advises that infants sleep on a flat surface, in a crib or bassinet, and has warned for years that inclined sleepers aren't safe. Sleeping for long in bouncers or car seats also is dangerous, the academy says. A study released last month monitored the blood-oxygen levels of sleeping infants and found that the sleepers make it easier for infants to roll over, facedown, where they can suffocate, per the Post. The head of Kids in Danger, a Chicago organization, agrees that sales of inclined sleepers should stop. "We think there’s enough evidence ... that there aren’t any on the market that are safe," she said, per the Sun Times. (More Consumer Product Safety Commission stories.)