Major Retailers Pull Weighted Infant Sleepwear That May Limit Baby's Ability To Breathe

ACROSS AMERICA — Three of the nation’s largest retailers — Amazon, Walmart and Target — have pulled a weighted sleepwear product from their inventories amid repeated warnings the products are unsafe and may inhibit the infant’s ability to breathe and pump blood.

Medical experts say the weighted products are associated with dangerous reductions in oxygen saturation levels in infants, which if sustained may be harmful to the infants developing brain or cause death. “Multiple infant deaths” have been attributed to weighted infant blankets, swaddles, sleep sacks and other related products, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health have also said the products are unsafe, and in a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission last year, the American Academy of Pediatrics said its members have “concerns about the possible development of a voluntary safety standard for weighted infant sleep products.”

Dr. Ben Hoffman, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, said the decision by the retailers to pull the items from their shelves “is a strong first step.”

“Babies deserve more,” Hoffman said in a statement. “Exhausted parents shouldn’t have to become part-time product safety regulators, but our current system forces them to by allowing infant products onto the market without evidence they are safe.”

Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Connecticut) last week called for an investigation into allegations of deceptive marketing practices by two of the top weighted-sleepwear manufacturers in the United States, Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean.

“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 an April 25 letter to Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan.

CPSC Commissioner Richard L. Trumka Jr. wrote a letter to major retailers last month warning them of the potential hazards and asking them to reconsider offering them for sale.

“I’ve sat with the parents of a child who died in one of these products, and I carry their grief with me,” he wrote. “I share their desire to make sure no one else suffers the fate that their family did.”

Both of the companies cited by Blumenthal have said there’s no evidence the products are unsafe, and that they work similar to weighted blankets for older children and adults in promoting a soothing and restful sleep.

“We’re a small business, and at this point it’s the United States government against Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean,” Dreamland Baby founder and CEO Tara Williams 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.”

Nested Bean founder and president Manasi Gangan also defended her company’s products as a “safe, effective tool that has helped millions of babies sleep.

“Any claims to the contrary are false,” she told NPR. “We look forward to working with the FTC and Senator Blumenthal and getting back to what we love: helping families get a great night's rest.”

Both Williams and Gangan told NPR they were aware of the deaths of two infants whose parents used the products, but that both were found in autopsies to be related to unsafe sleeping practices, with no mention of the weighted products. Gangan said Trumka “inaccurately attributed multiple infant deaths” to the products.

Scientific research has been sparse. In a safety study published in the journal Advances in Neonatal Care in 2020, researchers noted “no adverse events” associated with the weighted baby blankets, but said their heart rates slowed, and sleep sessions only lasted a half hour.

NPR said researchers in the safety study commissioned by Nested Bean found a 1-ounce weight on an infant’s chest did “not present clear indications for or against” potential breathing problems, but that 3- and 9.5-ounce weights “may increase potential hazard and subsequent risk” associated with slow breathing and faster pulse rates.

Both companies told NPR they are working with researchers at Indiana University to evaluate the safety of their products.

Skeptics say there’s no way of knowing if the products are safe because the products aren’t regulated or required to meet safety standards.

“It is imperative that products specifically designed for infants undergo rigorous safety testing and meet the most stringent standards prior to being made available in the market,” Michelle Barry, founder of the nonprofit Safe Infant Sleep, said in a statement.

Blumenthal became interested in the safety of the products after hearing stories from parents who are anxious about using them because of the lack of safety standards.

“I believe that there is sufficient evidence of potential harm to warrant an investigation. That is the minimum that this federal agency should do,” he told NPR. “Referring to past marketing claims by the companies, other agencies should join in demanding that these companies tell the truth.”

Nordstrom and Babylist have joined Amazon, Walmart and Target in discontinuing the products.

“This action could save lives, and I’m grateful for their cooperation,” Trumka wrote on Twitter.