Despite being recalled in 2019, more child deaths are still being linked to the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n’ Play sleeping harness.
According to Consumer Reports, the reason is that Mattel, the parent company of Fisher-Price and another recalled sleep harness brand, Kids2, have not done enough to warn parents who still have the products in their homes.
The devices were recalled in April 2019 after they were linked to at least 36 deaths, Consumer Reports said at the time.
The agency now says that since then, at least 12 more children have died as a result of the harnesses and that the total number of those killed by both the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n’ Play and Kids2 recliners is close to 100.
All of the deaths occurred while the babies were inside the sleeper and died from asphyxiation caused by the 30-degree incline of the product. All other sleepers on the market are flat.
The Fisher-Price baby recliner pictured on the left and the Kids2 harness pictured on the right
Lauren Kirchner, of Consumer Reports, told NBC Miami: ‘These sleepers position infants on an inclined sleeping surface, and that increases the risk of suffocation if it makes their heads drop forward onto their chests while they’re sleeping.’
She added: ‘Sadly, the news that additional infants have died means that even while the inclined sleepers cannot legally be sold, they are still being used in people’s homes.’
Kirchner said that when a recall occurs the onus is on the manufacturer to notify members of the public who have already purchased the product about the dangers.
One of the parents who has gone public following the death of their child in a Fisher-Price harness was Erika Richter of Oregon. Her daughter, Emma, died on August 15, 2018, when she was just a few weeks old.
‘Life on Earth is tragically short. I choose to explore it all and live a life that would make her proud. That little angel change my life forever. I’m always going to be Emma’s Mom. Now and forever,’ Richter said in a Facebook post.
Erika Richter, of Oregon, holds her newborn daughter Emma in 2018 who also died
Erika Richter died on August 15, 2008, she was born less than two weeks earlier
Erika Richter’s daughter Emma also died in the Rock ‘n Play
Another set of parents, Keenan and Evan Overton, said that their son Ezra died at just five months old after they strapped him into the harness while they worked out in December 2017.
They received the product from their neighbors as a hand-me-down gift.
‘I stayed out in the family room and lay down on the couch next to the rocker, telling my wife that she could get some rest in the bedroom,’ his father told the Kids In Danger website.
‘When I woke up in the middle of the night, I looked up, and I saw Ezra, turned into the monkey’s padded face and standing up in the seat of the chair. He was stiff like a doll, with his face twisted toward the side/back of the seat. His nose was squished flat. He was unresponsive. He did not feel real. When I picked him up, he felt like a doll.’
Keenan and Evan Overton’s five-month old died in December 2017 while he was sleeping in the Fisher-Price Rock ‘N Play product
Baby Ezra died in December 2017 after his parents, Keenan and Evan Overton, laid him down in the sleeper while they worked out. They received the product from their neighbors as a hand-me-down gift.
Consumer Reports said that less than ten percent of Fisher-Price Rock ‘n’ Play harnesses are accounted for, leaving around four million still potentially in people’s homes.
Mattel is quoted by the agency as saying it has ‘worked diligently to remove all recalled products from the market’ since the original recall.
The Fisher-Price product was first launched in 2009.
A total of 4.7 million units were affected by the recall, according to the CPSC, which reissued its recalling of the item once again earlier in January.
‘We are issuing this announcement because, despite their removal from the marketplace and a prohibition on their sale, babies continue to die in these products,’ Consumer Product Safety Commission Chair Alexander Hoehn-Saric said in a statement.
The original recall only happened once CPSC told Consumer Reports in early 2019 about the deaths associated with the product
He warned families who still have the sleepers to stop using them immediately.
‘We now know of approximately 100 infant deaths in the Rock n’ Play, including eight that happened after the recall was announced,’ Hoehn-Saric said.
The original recall only happened once CPSC told Consumer Reports in early 2019 about the deaths associated with the product.
It released data supporting its findings. Only then was the product taken off the market.
The American Academy of Pediatrics recommends that babies sleep on their backs on a flat surface.
Two federal class-action lawsuits have been filed against Fisher-Price and its parent company Mattel alleging dangerous & defective design and negligence.
One suit, filed by Cassandra Mulvey against Fisher Price and Mattel, claims the product’s marketing was ‘dangerously false and misleading, as the product is not safe for all-night or prolonged sleep for infants.’
The lawsuit suggests the Rock ‘n Play ‘significantly increased the risk that an infant’s head would slip into a dangerous position, tilt to constrict the windpipe and/or cause the infant’s face to become pressed against the padded fabric in the sleeper and block airflow, thereby increasing the risk of death by asphyxiation.’
The lawsuit also claims the angle at which children would be resting in the sleeper ‘increases the infant’s risk of developing flat head (plagiocephaly) and twisted neck (torticollis) syndromes, conditions that often require babies to wear expensive head-molding helmets and undergo physical therapy.’
Another suit was filed by Samantha Drover-Mundy and Zachary Mundy, a couple in Delaware, after their 12-week-old daughter allegedly died after just a few minutes in a Rock ‘n Play sleeper back in September of 2018.
In addition to causing their daughter’s death, the suit claims that ‘the Rock ‘n Play’s defective design also causes injuries…which require costly medical treatment and can cause life-long damage, including permanent deformities and developmental delays.’
The suits also claim that both Fisher-Price and Mattel disregarded the AAP’s recommendations as to appropriate infant sleep environments.
Furthermore, they alleged that the defendants lobbied the CPSC to let them avoid regulations that would have kept the product off the market.
In 2021, a two-year investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform found Fisher Price executives ignored safety warnings about the company’s popular incline sleeper for a decade as it continued to rake in $200million in sales.
The committee’s report found Fisher Price did not properly test the product before releasing it in 2009 and then ignored repeated warnings that it was dangerous in the years that followed.
