The death of a 10-day-old Texas boy has prompted the Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall about 40 baby slings manufactured by Sprout Stuff of Austin, Texas. The CPSC website announced the recall this week.
CPSC urges consumers to stop using the infant ring slings immediately since they pose a suffocation risk to babies. According to a previous warning from the CPSC related to sling carriers, the risk of suffocation stems from the fact that, since babies have weak neck muscles that cannot support the baby’s head, the sling’s fabric can press against their nose and mouth, blocking the breathing and rapidly suffocate a baby within a minute or two.
Also, since the sling carrier keeps the baby in a curled (“C”) position, the baby’s chin bends down to the chest, restricting the baby’s oxygen supply. This prevents the baby from crying out for help, so the caretaker is not aware that the baby is slowly suffocating.
Risks like these call out for safety standards for infant sling carriers – currently, there are none.
The recalled infant slings are made in the US from natural muslin, and come with or without a shoulder pad. “Sprout Stuff” is printed on the back side of the tail’s hem. The slings were sold directly to consumers between October 2006 and May 2007.
This recall comes a couple of months after the March recall of 1 million infant slings made by Infantino that were linked to the deaths of three babies.
The CPSC is also investigating at least 13 deaths in the past 20 years related to sling carrier use. Almost all of these deaths involved infants less than four months old.
The latest death involved a 10-day old boy in Round Rock, Texas, in 2007.
