New law outlaws inclined sleepers and crib bumpers for infants

Lurie Children’s Hospital in Chicago held a press conference last week to remind parents about safe sleeping practices and the risk for infant sleep deaths.

The press conference was timed to coincide with the Sleep Safe for Babies Act, which was signed into law by President Joe Biden in May but just went into effect on Nov. 12. The act outlaws the manufacture, sale or distribution of inclined sleepers and crib bumpers for infants.

A summary of the legislation on Congress.gov describes inclined sleepers as “those designed for an infant up to 1 year old [that] have an inclined sleep surface of greater than 10 degrees.” Crib bumpers are “padded materials inserted around the inside of a crib and intended to prevent the crib occupant from becoming trapped in any part of the crib's openings; they do not include unpadded, mesh crib liners.”

“We are gathered here ... to raise awareness about the best safe sleep practices for parents and caregivers, and to highlight recent laws and regulations aimed at creating a safer marketplace to keep all babies safe,” Matthew Davis, MD, chair of pediatrics at Lurie Children’s Hospital, said at the beginning of the press conference.

Davis said that hospital surveys found that 58% of Chicago parents do not follow safe sleeping practices for their infants.

“This latest survey brings calls for worry because these practices are putting a high number of babies in our city at risk for injury and even death,” Davis said. “But we can do something about this. Infant deaths are a tragedy, and we need common sense prevention to hold babies have safe spaces to breathe while they sleep.”

Also present at the conference was Alexander Hoehn-Saric, JD, chair of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).

“When I joined the CPSC a little over a year ago, I said I would be making children's safety a priority, particularly when it comes to consumer products that are used by and for infants, Hoehn-Saric said. “I'm happy to say that over the last year we make a lot of progress toward these goals. In this last year, we have started to enforce the Infant Sleep Product Rule, which was finalized in 2021 but went into effect in June. This is a rule that says that the products intended or marketed for infants to sleep in must comply with our standards.” Since June, Hoehn-Saric added, at least 26 retail products deemed unsafe per the rule have been taken off the market.

Kyran Quinlan, MD, MPH, former chair of the AAP Council on Injury, Violence, and Poison Prevention Executive Committee and a practitioner at Rush Children’s Hospital in Chicago, said progress in preventing infant sleep deaths has stalled.

“About the same number of babies died from sleep-related infant deaths as died about 20 years ago [of the same cause],” Quinlan said. “These deaths are very tragic, but many of them are sadly also preventable. Here in Cook County, another sudden unexpected infant death happens about once a week.”

Quinlan noted that he has seen the grief of sleep-related infant deaths firsthand in his own practice and gave advice on best strategies for safe sleep: laying a baby on its back; using a firm flat surface such as a crib, bassinet or a playpen rather than an adult bed; removing soft objects and loose bedding from a sleeping area; and never having an adult sleep next to a baby.

These tips are important every time your baby sleeps, whether it be during naps, putting them to bed or after feedings,” Quinlan said. “Working together, we can continue the critical progress that is the Safe Sleep for Babies Act and protect so many more families from unnecessary heartbreak.”

References:

AAP statement on passage of the Safe Sleep for Babies Act. https://www.aap.org/en/news-room/news-releases/aap/2022/aap-statement-on-passage-of-the-safe-sleep-for-babies-act/. Published May 4, 2022. Accessed Nov. 10, 2021.

Congress.gov. H.R. 3182 – Safe Sleep for Babies Act of 2021. https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/3182. Accessed Nov. 15, 2022.

White House. Bills signed: H.R. 3182 and H.R. 6023. https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/legislation/2022/05/16/bills-signed-h-r-3182-and-h-r-6023/. Published May 16, 2022. Accessed Nov. 15, 2022.