Regulators, pediatricians warn against sleep positioners

Federal regulators and the nation’s leading pediatrician group on Wednesday warned parents that popular baby sleep positioners – marketed as safety products – can be deadly and urged families to stop using them, retailers to stop selling them and manufacturers to stop making them.

The products have been linked to at least a dozen suffocation deaths in the last 13 years, regulators said.

The products often have foam bolsters on the sides that help keep a baby in one position, but infants can wiggle or roll into unsafe spots. Babies have suffocated on the foam or have become trapped between the product and the side of the crib or bassinet.

For years, the American Academy of Pediatrics and others have promoted scientifically backed advice calling for babies to sleep on their backs to reduce the risk of sudden infant death syndrome, or SIDS.

The sleep positioners appeal to the safety-minded parent who worries a child will stray from that position. Sales of the products, which often cost less than $20, took off in the last five years.