About 100 deaths linked to Fisher-Price’s infant sleepers

Dozens more infants have died since Fisher-Price initially recalled its Rock ‘n Play sleeper nearly four years ago, prompting federal safety officials once again to warn families against using the product.

Fisher-Price originally recalled 4.7 million sleepers in April 2019 after more than 30 infants died from rolling onto their stomach while unrestrained inside the device. Since then, roughly 70 additional deaths have been reported, bringing the total number of infant fatalities tied to the incline sleeper to approximately 100, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Monday.

“Fisher-Price notes that in some of the reports, it has been unable to confirm the circumstances of the incidents or that the product was a Rock ‘n Play Sleeper,” the CPSC said in a recall notice issued with the company. 

Anyone with a Rock ‘n Play should stop using it immediately and contact Fisher-Price for a refund, the agency said. 

Mattel, Fisher-Price’s parent company, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

Customers who bought a Rock ‘n Play after Oct. 12, 2018, will receive a cash refund after returning the product, according to Mattel’s recall website. Anyone who bought the sleeper before that date will get a voucher for a different Fisher-Price product. Customers are asked to dismantle the sleeper and send it back to Fisher-Price and the company will pay for shipping.

A CPSC official blasted Fisher-Price, saying its sleeper recall inadequate and overly complicated, and pressed the brand to take responsibility for withdrawing the potentially deadly products from the market. 

“Fisher-Price’s Rock ‘n Play recall was not good enough to remove these products from homes,” CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka said in a statement. “The incentives Fisher Price offered were inadequate to draw in enough consumers, and the hurdles were too many. Now, eight infants have died after the recall, tragically bringing the death toll associated with the product to over 90 babies.”

A House committee found in 2021 that Fisher-Price ignored warnings about its Rock ‘n Play inclined sleepers, which were on the market for around a decade before the first recall.

Oriene Shin, policy counsel at Consumer Reports, said sleepers from Fisher-Price and Georgia-based baby product maker Kids2 have become a real threat to infants in recent years. 

“Fisher-Price and Kids2 have had years to get their dangerous sleepers out of people’s homes and make their recalls effective, but they have utterly failed,” Shin said in a statement. “It is alarming that they haven’t done more to prevent harm with infants’ lives on the line.”

Kids2 didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

The Rock ‘n Play sleepers were sold for between $40 and $149 at major retailers — including Amazon, Target and Walmart — from September 2009 through April 2019. 

Parents and caregivers should not use inclined products, including rockers, gliders, soothers and swings, for infant sleep and should never leave babies in the products unattended or with bedding material due to the risk of suffocation, the CPSC has said. 

President Biden last spring signed into law the Safe Sleep for Babies Act, which bans the manufacture or sale of padded crib bumper pads and inclined sleep products linked to hundreds of deaths. 

The newest CPSC warning comes seven months after the agency warned parents against using Fisher-Price’s Infant-to-Toddler Rockers and Newborn-to-Toddler Rockers.