Fisher-Price recalls another inclined infant sleeper, marking full exit from troubled category

Fisher-Price on Thursday recalled 71,000 infant play yards with inclined-sleeper attachments, in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission, despite no deaths or injuries being associated with the product – and no apparent product defect.

But Fisher-Price’s decision to pull its Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yard with inclined sleeper marks the company’s full exit from selling inclined sleep products, several weeks after the company recalled 4.7 million of its popular Rock ‘n Play inclined sleepers because that product was associated with more than 30 baby deaths.

The April 12 recall of the Rock ‘n Play ignited a debate over how a product that seemed to violate recommended safe-sleep practices was developed and allowed to be sold for a decade. The American Academy of Pediatrics and government authorities have long said that babies should sleep flat on their backs in cribs or bassinets. An inclined sleeper allows babies to sleep at an approximately 30-degree angle.

Nearly 700,000 inclined sleepers made by Kids II – which were tied to five deaths – were recalled shortly after Rock ‘n Play was recalled.

Consumer advocates such as Consumer Reports, along with the American Academy of Pediatrics, have asked for a complete ban on the sale of inclined sleepers. Canada does not allow products with a greater than 10-degree incline to be sold as infant sleeping devices.

The sale of inclined sleepers made by other companies continues, but that could eventually change.

Earlier this month, the CPSC said in an agency document that it planned to stop work on the development of safety guidelines for inclined sleep products. The agency had been looking at establishing the guidelines, based on voluntary safety rules, for two years.

The death toll associated with inclined sleepers has continued to climb, the agency said, revealing that it knows of 50 deaths tied to the product.