Baby loungers and cushions are popular among parents because they offer a place to rest your little one when you need two hands. But they can be dangerous if not used correctly — loungers have been linked to 124 injuries and 79 infant deaths since 2010. Now, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is adopting new safety standards to lower the risk of babies being harmed while using these items.
The new standards aim to reduce suffocation, entrapment and fall risks in infant support cushions including infant head positioner pillows, anti-rollover pillows, crib pillows, wedge pillows, stuffed mats and multi-purpose pillows marketed for both nursing and lounging.[1]
"This is an important rule that creates safety standards for a set of products that — until now — were not subject to comprehensive safety standards and created suffocation hazards for infants," Nikki Fleming, a spokesperson with the CPSC, tells What to Expect.
What do the new standards say, and what does it mean if you have a baby lounger at home? Here’s what parents need to know.
- The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced new guidelines for infant support cushions to reduce the risk of injury or death.
- Infant support cushions were connected to 79 infant deaths and 124 injuries between 2010 and 2022.
- You can keep using your existing lounger, wedge or mat with your baby — as long as you stay near your baby during use and never use it for infant sleep.
What's in the new standards for baby loungers?
The new standards clearly spell out criteria that all new infant support cushions must meet. The standards include:
Firmness testing on all parts of the product’s surface that a baby can come into contact with. The goal of this is to reduce suffocation from the cushion conforming to a baby’s face and obstructing the airway.
Sidewall angle testing requiring the angle formed between any sidewall and the occupant surface to be greater than 90 degrees. This addresses the risk of suffocation and entrapment between the sidewall and support surface where a baby would lay.
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A maximum incline angle that cannot exceed 10 degrees to prevent “hazardous positioning” of a baby’s head and neck on the cushion. This limits the side height of the cushion to slightly less than 2 inches, which provides a visual cue to consumers to place the cushion on the floor to prevent falls.
No infant restraints. These incorrectly suggest that infants can safely be left unattended in the product, per the CPSC.
Strongly worded on-product warning labels that are clear and permanent.
Why are the safety standards changing?
The ruling comes after a 2008 Congressional directive for the CPSC to issue mandatory safety standards for all durable infant products. "While much of that work was completed in the years immediately following passage of the law, the CPSC continues that work, including with the recently finalized nursing pillow rule and the infant support cushion rule," Fleming says.
Most of the injuries and deaths reported to the CPSC happened in babies under the age of 3 months. The majority of deaths involved using the cushion in or on a sleep product, including an adult bed or mattress, a bassinet, crib, play yard or on a couch, futon or toddler bed.
“The hope is that the new federal safety standards will help to prevent these tragedies,” says Daniel Ganjian, M.D., a pediatrician at Providence Saint John’s Health Center in Santa Monica, California.
There is also a lot of confusion among parents about how these products should be used, says Ansley Schulte, M.D., the pediatric medical director at KidsPeace. “Because many of these products are marketed as loungers, they may lure parents into a false sense of security that the ‘support’ will also safely contain their infant, leading to unsafe practices such as letting babies sleep in them or placing them on an elevated surface,” she says.
What does this mean if you already own a baby lounger?
The new standards technically don’t apply to existing infant support cushions and baby loungers. However, the CPSC stresses the importance of using these products safely and keeping in mind that babies can turn over and roll out of infant support cushions without warning.
That means keeping these CPSC recommendations in mind when using infant support cushions:
Never use infant support cushions for sleeping or napping. If the baby falls asleep, transfer her to a crib, play yard or bassinet.
Stay near and watch your baby during use.
Only use infant support cushions on the floor.
Do not use an infant support cushion on beds, sofas or other raised surfaces.
Do not place infant support cushions on soft surfaces or in other infant sleep products, like cribs or bassinets.
Keep blankets and other soft items out of and away from the infant support cushion.
“I hope this leads to fewer injuries and deaths, and greater awareness of the safest way to use these products overall,” Schulte says. “I also hope this leads to a wider discussion of the importance of safe sleep and best practices to prevent injuries in infants.”
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