CPSC Warns About Infant Sleep Positioners and Baby Monitor Cords Following Several Deaths

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is warning parents and guardians to exercise caution when using a corded baby audio and video camera monitor. There have been reports of six baby strangulation deaths involving a baby monitor cord since 2004. It was just this March that a 10-month-old girl died in a Washington DC child injury accident after she became entangled in her camera monitor’s cord. The monitor had been next to her crib. The CPSC says it has also obtained three other reports of babies that became entangled in a monitor cord and were fortunately rescued before suffering serious injuries.
Although the CPSC is not at this time recalling baby monitors with cords, to decrease the chances of strangulation, the agency is recommending that caregivers and parents:

  • Use a baby monitor that is wireless.
  • If you are going to use a corded baby monitor, then keep the cord out of your child’s reach.

The CPSC is also continuing to recommend that you keep your son or daughter away from any type of cord and that you remove drawstrings and long ribbons from a child’s clothing.
The agency, along with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, is also warning consumers to stop using infant sleep positioners. Although long touted as a tool for helping babies stay on their backs while sleeping, over the last 13 years there have been reports of 12 baby suffocation deaths after the infants became entrapped between the positioner and the side of a bassinet or crib.
There have also been dozens of reports of babies who ended up in potentially dangerous positions while using the positioner even after they had been placed on their side or back. Although an infant sleep positioner is supposed to lower the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, the FDA and CPSC do not know of any scientific studies that can verify that this infant product prevents SIDS or suffocation.
Strangulation and Suffocation Accidents Involving Children
Over the years, too many kids and babies have died or sustained serious injuries, such as brain damage, due to suffocation or strangulation. While government and safety officials have taken steps to prevent products that pose such hazards to children from entering the marketplace, unfortunately there are still consumer items, including those that are made specifically for infants and young kids, that continue to make their way onto store shelves and into homes.
Infants can strangle in baby monitor cords, CPSC (PDF)
FDA & CPSC: Infant Sleep Positioners Pose Suffocation Risk, Parenting, September 29, 2010
Related Web Resources:
FDA
Sudden Infant Death Syndrome
Strangulation and Suffocation, Parents

You may have grounds for a products liability case. Contact our child injury law firm today.

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