The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has issued a safety alert over certain baby sleeping bags, urging people not to buy them because infants could overheat and suffocate in them.
The warning concerns baby sleeping bags that do not have arm holes or include a hood. They are marketed or intended to be used as bags for babies to sleep in unsupervised when in a crib or cot.
Without armholes to keep a baby in position, the child might slip into the sleeping bag which could result in overheating, suffocation and potentially death. Sleeping bags with hoods may also cover a baby's nose and mouth and cause similar harm.
Nearly 50 recalls since 2023
The safety alert has been issued following nearly 50 recalls or product safety reports for dangerous sleeping bag products in the UK since 2023. The OPSS is advising parents "not to buy – and to stop using – any sleeping bag products that lack armholes or which include a hood for unsupervised baby sleep". They add: "Parents and carers who have these products should contact the business that supplied them as they may be entitled to redress."
The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has also issued a warning for people to be on high alert for online ads promoting baby products that claim to help with colic, reflux, sleep and soothing. The warning follows a large-scale monitoring exercise in which the regulator identified ads promoting potentially dangerous products and practices that could put babies at risk of serious harm or death.
NHS guidance and ASA findings
According to NHS guidance and the Lullaby Trust, babies should sleep flat on their backs on a firm, flat surface and warn against using inclined or elevated sleep products. The ASA checked 350 online ads for baby products and services, finding 59% were "high risk" and identifying 60 ads for follow-up action because of the potential risk of physical harm.
Problems included claims that issues were caused by a baby lying flat, with products promoted as a solution by positioning or elevating the baby, claims that sleep or elevation devices could reduce or stop reflux, ease distress, improve sleep or prevent colic, and images of babies strapped into potentially unsafe sleep devices. The watchdog said many of the ads were clearly aimed at sleep-deprived or first-time parents, who may be particularly vulnerable to claims promising a quick solution to a distressed or unsettled baby.
Jessica Tye, regulatory projects manager at the ASA, said: "Parents may, understandably, be worried and exhausted when their baby is struggling with reflux, colic or not sleeping and may be looking for anything that could help. But when an ad takes those worries and uses them to promote a product or practice that could put a baby in danger, it's unacceptable and something we take very seriously.
"The ads we identified through our monitoring raised serious concerns for us, which is why we're taking immediate action today to warn parents and share what we've found with our regulatory partners."
Minister for consumer protection Kate Dearden said: "As these findings demonstrate, parents must be able to trust baby products are safe and do not undermine established medical advice. We will continue working closely with regulators, businesses and safer-sleep experts to remove unsafe baby products and hold those responsible to account."
Warning over 'must have' items
Just last month, ChronicleLive reported how parents were urged to think twice before buying baby sleep aids and feeding products that are often billed as "must have" items but may be putting infants at risk. The Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents (RoSPA) warned there were "hidden dangers" in some products which can put babies at risk of suffocation, choking and overheating.
It highlighted a number of products which "may present a risk to babies" including self-feeding cushions, baby sleep positioners and in-cot sleep aids. Widely available online, some of these products are sold without clear safety information or instructions explaining potential risks. Here are more details.
Meanwhile, a separate alert was shared about a baby sleep aid that presented a "serious risk of suffocation". The Baby Side Sleeper Wedge was sold via Amazon, though the listing has since been removed. Here's more.
