More Deaths Linked to Fisher-Price Rock ’n Play and Kids2 Infant Sleepers, Even After Recalls

Companies aren't doing enough to warn parents, and millions of the dangerous products could still be in use, experts say

Consumer Reports Investigative Reporter, Lauren Kirchner.

By Lauren Kirchner
Investigative Reporter

January 9, 2023

Fisher Price Rock n' Play and Kids2 rocking sleeper — The Fisher-Price Rock ’n Play Sleeper and the Kids2 Ingenuity Moonlight Sleeper.

It has been more than three years since Fisher-Price and Kids2 recalled millions of their infant inclined sleepers after the products had been linked to dozens of deaths. Since those recalls, however, at least eight additional babies have died in Fisher-Price’s Rock ’n Play Sleepers and four have died in the Kids2 sleepers, the Consumer Product Safety Commission said Monday.

One contributing reason: Many of the products remain in people’s homes, in part because the companies have not done enough to warn parents about the dangers, CR experts say. Not knowing that these products pose a suffocation risk, some parents continue to use them for their infants’ sleep. Or they may pass them down to other new parents, or sell them secondhand.

The Rock ’n Play and other infant sleepers are dangerous because they put babies’ backs at an incline, posing the risk that their heads will fall forward. They frequently have padded sides, which can also cause babies to suffocate. In addition to the Rock ’n Play, the Fisher Price 4-in-1 Rock ’n Glide Soother and 2-1 Soothe ’n Play Glider and the Kids2 rocking sleepers have also been recalled, and the federal government has issued a warning for other rockers, saying they should never be used for sleep.

When a product is recalled, it is the manufacturer’s responsibility to not only take it out of stores but also inform people who already own it so they can immediately stop using it, return it, repair it, or throw it out, depending on the circumstances.

A group of parents and caregivers are currently suing Fisher-Price and its parent company Mattel in a multi-district class action lawsuit, alleging that they never received a recall notification about the inclined sleepers they owned. "The goal of our nationwide class action is to make consumers whole for purchasing these products as a result of defendant’s decade-long misleading marketing of the Rock ’n Play Sleeper as safe for infant sleep," says Demet Basar, the lead lawyer in the lawsuit. The litigation is ongoing.

As of March 2022, only 9.5 percent of the Rock ’n Play sleepers had been accounted for, according to information from Fisher-Price’s parent company, Mattel, in its response to questions from Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and Rep. Jan Schakowsky, D-Ill., about its handling of the recall. In other words, as of a year ago more than 4 million of the recalled sleepers could be still out in the world and potentially putting babies at risk of injury or death.

Last summer, a nurse reported to the CPSC that they had spotted a Rock ’n Play for sale in a secondhand store in North Carolina. The report states that the nurse informed the manager that the product was dangerous and had been recalled, but the manager did not remove it from the store. The CPSC recommends that if anyone sees one of these recalled sleepers for sale they report it to the agency at SaferProducts.gov.

In total, nearly 100 infant deaths have been linked to Fisher-Price Rock ’n Play Sleepers, eight of them occurring after they were recalled, as CR reported last February. And 15 deaths are associated with Kids2 sleepers, including four occurring after their recall in 2019. Both companies note that in some of the reports, they were unable to confirm the circumstances or the fact that they had occurred in their products.

Screenshots of the Fisher-Price website on a cell phone showing where the recall information is located on the site. — Information about recalls is not featured on the home page of Fisher-Price's mobile website, requiring consumers to navigate deeper.

Screenshots of the Kids2 website on a cell phone showing where the recall information is located on the site. — The Kids2 mobile website features information about the recall at the top of the page.

CR and other safety experts were critical of the recall remedy options offered by both companies in 2019 because of the burden it placed on consumers and because people who owned the product for longer than six months were offered only a company voucher, not a refund.

CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka said in a statement on Monday that he was one of those parents who owned a Rock ’n Play and that he found the recall “insulting and unwelcome to parents just learning of the deaths associated with the Fisher-Price Rock ’n Play.” He added, “I know because I owned one. I threw away my son’s Rock ’n Play rather than take a coupon for another of the company’s products.”

In response to questions from CR on Monday, Mattel spokesperson Catherine Frymark said that Fisher-Price “has worked diligently to remove all recalled product from the market” since its voluntary recall of the Rock ’n Play in 2019, but did not provide details. Kids2 did not respond to a request for comment.

CR safety experts say that with infant lives at risk, these companies need to spread the word more effectively.

“We hope that the CPSC’s reannouncement of these recalls leads to more inclined sleepers being returned or destroyed,” says Oriene Shin, policy counsel at Consumer Reports. “Fisher-Price and Kids2 have had years to get their dangerous sleepers out of people’s homes and make their recalls effective, but they have utterly failed. Parents and caregivers deserve companies that deliver timely, transparent recalls when a product puts babies at risk.”

Shin also says any parent who still has any of these products in their home should immediately stop using them. And they should report any issues to the CPSC at SaferProducts.gov.

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