Another Baby Sling Recalled – Risk of Suffocation
Sprout Stuff has recalled its popular baby sling in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) due to the risk of suffocation. One newborn baby has reportedly died due to suffocation in this specific sling. The CPSC issued a warning on March 12, 2010 about all baby slings. Several other slings have also been recalled, including Infantino SlingRider in March 2010. The full list can be found here.
If you own one of these slings, quit using it immediately.
These slings are dangerous for two separate reasons: the positioning of the child in the sling and the child’s lack of muscle strength. Both of these dangers can result in the suffocation of the child.
1. In the first situation, the infant’s face is in contact with the sling’s fabric. Since the baby does not have the neck muscles to move away from the fabric yet, the fabric can cover the nose and mouth and block the child from breathing. If that happens, the baby would suffocate rapidly due to the lack of intake of oxygen.
2. In the second situation, the child is positioned in a curled position with the chin facing the chest which restricts her airways. In this case, the child is unable to cry for help because of the reduced oxygen intake. If she remains in this position, she will thus suffocate slowly.
These dangers are serious and cannot be fixed, so the CPSC and Sprout Stuff have not issued repair instructions for the sling.
Officials are continuing to collect incident reports of cases involving this and other similar products. If you have an incident to report, please visit: https://www.cpsc.gov/cgibin/incident.aspx.
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