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Safety concerns arise over weighted baby sleeping products after commission’s warning
Sleep-deprived new parents are increasingly turning to weighted sleep sacks and blankets to help their infants sleep better and longer. But the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Consumer Product Safety Commission have raised serious safety concerns. The AAP says these products are unsafe for infants, and the CPSC told CBS News investigating “multiple fatalities associated with” weighted infant products.
Products from Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean are among those that major retailers, including Amazon and Walmart, have pulled from their shelves after a CPSC commissioner wrote letters to the companies warning about the potential dangers.
But those two companies say their products were designed with safety in mind, that they consulted with experts and no deaths have resulted from their products and the the deaths being investigated are not associated with products made by those brands
Nested Bean & Dreamland Baby CEOs defend products’ safety
Despite these warnings, Nested Bean CEO Manasi Gangan said there is no investigation related to her company’s products and noted there have been no fatalities linked to the items.
Gangan founded her company in 2011 after seeking sleep solutions for her own infant. She says the products, containing a pouch with small plastic beads, mimic a parent’s comforting hand on a baby’s chest and are safe. She also commissioned a study that she says shows the weight of the products did not affect a baby’s breathing or heart rate.
Gangan says the study proved “That our products have always been safe just as we had designed them, they were designed to be safe.”
However, the AAP noted that the study only measured the weights on five babies for two minutes and did not test the products in real-world conditions for babies sleeping for extended periods.
Dreamland Baby CEO Tara Williams, also a mom who started her company after searching for sleep solutions, defended her company’s products as well.
She said that Dreamland Baby has a full medical board, that is led by a pediatrician.
Safety had “always been the heart of what we did,” said Williams.
She said she relied on a study of babies using weighted products in hospitals and is conducting her own clinical trial now.
However, she acknowledged that no study was conducted before the products hit the market in 2018. When asked whether it’s the manufacturer’s responsibility to ensure a product’s safety before it reaches the market, Williams questioned whether any other businesses conduct extensive, peer-reviewed clinical trials, which can take years, prior to a product’s release.”We’re a small business. How would we have innovation in America? I mean, this is how America works,” said Williams.
Health experts, parents caution against weighted sleep sacks
Gloria Gamboa, a new mom of twin boys, initially hoped that Dreamland Baby’s weighted sleep sack would help her babies sleep. But she found the sacks too heavy and was worried that her children wouldn’t be able to move or breathe. She decided against using them due to her concerns about the safety of her babies.
“My instincts told me, don’t use this,” Gamboa said.
Dr. Ben Hoffman, president of the AAP, said that anything that limits a baby’s movement or impacts their ability to breathe can put them at risk. The AAP advises against the use of any weighted blankets or swaddles for infants, citing risks such as lower oxygen levels and an increased chance of SIDS, or sudden infant death syndrome.
“I cannot imagine a scenario in which [weighted products] are a good thing,” said Hoffman.
In a statement to CBS News, the CPSC said it advises parents against using weighted blankets and swaddles for sleep. “CPSC encourages parents to consult with their pediatrician before buying any product that claims to improve baby health or help with sleep.”
Regulatory gaps in products
Dr. Hoffman explained that the current system permits products to enter the market without any proven safety record or requirement for safety demonstration.
He said that products can be sold even if they contradict established medical knowledge and scientific evidence about safe sleep practices.
“The proof of safety lies with the manufacturer,” said Hoffman. “Show me the data that it’s safe. If you can’t show me that it’s safe, I’m not going to be able to recommend it.
Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut pointed out a broader regulatory issue, saying that the Consumer Product Safety Commission has no power to take products off the shelves.
“No matter how egregious or severe the dangers from a particular product, the Consumer Product Safety Commission doesn’t have any powers to mandate that companies stop producing or selling them,” said Blumenthal.
Both Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean told CBS News their sales dropped more than 50% following the retailers’ decisions to remove their products. Dreamland Baby’s CEO said she plans to sue the CPSC over the commissioner’s letter to retailers, claiming the agency violated her constitutional rights.
The following is a transcript of an interview with Sen. Mark Kelly, Democrat of Arizona, on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan” that aired on Oct. 6, 2024.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Joining us now is Arizona’s Democratic Senator, Mark Kelly. He’s in Detroit this morning on the campaign trail for the Harris campaign. Good morning to you, Senator.
SEN. MARK KELLY: Good morning, Margaret.
MARGARET BRENNAN: I want to talk to you about Arizona, but let’s start in Michigan, which is where you are right now. And it is going to be such a key state to a potential Harris or Trump victory. Vice President Harris is facing challenges among black men, working class people, as well as the Muslim and Arab populations skeptical of the White House support for Israel’s wars. What are you hearing on the ground there from voters?
SEN. KELLY: Well, my wife, Gabby Giffords, and I have been out here for a couple days. We’ve been campaigning across the country, Michigan, I’ve been in North Carolina, Georgia as well. I’ll be back to Arizona here soon. The vice president was out here speaking to Muslim organizations and the Arab community about what is at stake in this election and addressing the concerns that they have. What we’re hearing, issues about the economy, about gun violence, about, you know, supporting American families and the difference between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris. You know, Kamala Harris, who has a vision for the future of this country, Donald Trump, who just wants to drag us backwards.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Today in Dearborn, Michigan, there’s a funeral service for an American man who was killed in Lebanon by an Israeli airstrike. It just underscores how that community you’re talking about out in Michigan feel some of what’s happening in a personal way to their community. Given how close this race is, do you think this war and the expectation it could escalate could cost Democrats both a seat in the Senate and potentially the presidency?
SEN. KELLY: Margaret, nobody wants to see escalation and it’s tragic when any innocent person, whether it’s an American or Palestinian, lose their life in a conflict. Tomorrow’s one year since October 7th, when Israel was violently attacked. Israel has a right to defend itself, not only from Hamas, but from Hezbollah and from the Iranians. But, you know, I and my wife, you know, we feel for the community here who’s been affected by this. And that’s why the vice president was out here earlier, a few days ago, meeting with that community.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But it’s a live issue.
SEN. KELLY: Yeah, sure. I mean, there is an ongoing conflict in the Middle East. Israel is, you know, fighting a war now on, I think it’s fair to say, two fronts and then being attacked by the Iranians as well. And, they- they need to defend themselves, and we need to support our Israeli ally. At the same time, when women and children lose their life, innocent people in a conflict, it is- it is tragic.
MARGARET BRENNAN: You do sit on the Senate Intelligence Committee and so I know you know how intense the efforts are by foreign actors to try to manipulate voters going into November. Just this Friday, Matthew Olsen, the lead on election threats at the Department of Justice, told CBS the Russians are, quote, highlighting immigration as a wedge issue. That is such a key issue in Arizona. Are you seeing targeted information operations really focusing in on Arizonans right now?
SEN. KELLY: Not only in Arizona, in other battleground states. It’s the Russians, the Chinese, the Iranians, and it’s significant. And we need to do a better job getting the message out to the American people that there is a huge amount of misinformation. If you’re looking at stuff on Twitter, on TikTok, on Facebook, on Instagram, and it’s political in nature, and you may- might think that that person responding to that political article or who made that meme up is an American. It could be- it could look like a U.S. service member. There is a very reasonable chance I would put it in the 20 to 30% range, that the content you are seeing, the comments you are seeing, are coming from one of those three countries: Russia, Iran, China. We had a hearing recently, with the FBI director, the DNI, and the head of the National Security Agency. And we talked about this. And we talked about getting the word out. And it’s up to us, so thank you for asking me the question, because it’s up to us, the people who serve in Congress and the White House to get the information out there, that there is a tremendous amount of misinformation in this election, and it’s not going to stop on November 5th.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Understood. And we will do our best to help parse that for viewers. But on the topic of the border, President Biden did announce just this past week new regulations to keep in place that partial asylum ban that he rolled out back in June. That’s what’s credited with helping to bring down some of the border crossing numbers in recent weeks. It was supposed to be a temporary policy, dependent on how many people were crossing at a time. Do you think this is the right long term policy, or is this just a gimmick to bring down numbers ahead of the election?
SEN. KELLY: Well, the right long term policy is to do this through legislation. And we were a day or two away from doing that, passing strong border security legislation supported by the vice president, negotiated by the vice president, and the president and his Department of Homeland Security, with Democrats and Republicans–
MARGARET BRENNAN: But this is not legislation.
SEN. KELLY: –This is bipartisan. This isn’t. But the legislation was killed by Donald Trump. We were really close to getting it passed. That’s the correct way to do this. When you can’t do that, Margaret, when a former president interrupts the legislative process the way he did, which is the most hypocritical thing I’ve ever seen in my three and a half years in the Senate. After that happened, the only other option is executive actions. And this has gone from what was chaos and a crisis at our southern border to somewhat manageable. And if you’re the border- Border Patrol, you know, this is this- you need this. I mean, otherwise it is unsafe for Border Patrol agents, for CBP officers, for migrants, for communities in southern Arizona. So it’s unfortunate that this was the- these were the steps that had to be taken.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay.
SEN. KELLY: But that’s because the former president didn’t allow us to do this through legislation.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Senator, we have to leave it right there. Face the Nation will be right back.
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Sen. Mark Kelly says Americans need to know about “huge amount of misinformation” on election
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