8 Infant Deaths Linked to Sleeper Happened After Recall

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has issued a grim update on the Fisher-Price Rock 'n Play Sleeper, which was recalled in 2019: The agency says the deaths of 100 infants have now been linked to the sleeper, including at least eight that occurred after the recall was issued. The CPSC repeated its warning from 2019. "Consumers should stop using the Rock 'n Play immediately and contact Fisher-Price for a refund or voucher," the agency said. "It is illegal to sell or distribute the recalled sleepers." Around 4.7 million of the sleepers were sold between 2009 and 2019, USA Today reports. The agency said infants died in the sleepers after rolling "from their back to their stomach or side while unrestrained, or under other circumstances."

More deaths have been linked to other Fisher-Price sleepers and similar products from other companies. Regulators are now urging parents to avoid inclined sleepers in general because the risk of suffocation is too high. The American Academy of Pediatrics says that infants should sleep on a flat surface, in a crib or bassinet. A spokeswoman for Mattel, Fisher Price's parent company, said the company has worked "diligently" since 2019 to remove the sleepers from the market. "Today's reannouncement serves as a critical reminder to both consumers and resellers that they should not use, sell, or donate the recalled Rock 'n Play," spokeswoman Catherine Frymark said, the New York Times reports.

In 2021, an investigation found that Fisher-Price had ignored warnings that the sleepers were dangerous. Dr. Lois Lee, the chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics council on injury, violence, and poison prevention, tells the Times that the CPSC should be able to warn parents about products without seeking industry approval. The deaths after the 2019 recall "just underscores how much harder it is to remove millions of dangerous products from homes than it is to never allow them to be sold in the first place," Lee says. The CPSC has also re-announced its 2019 recall of the Kids2 Rocking Sleepers. The agency says four of 15 deaths linked to the product happened after the recall. (More Fisher-Price stories.)