Consumers Urged to Stop Using Dangerous Bassinets

Posted on September 1, 2009 in Consumer Goods, Health & Medicine, Parenting, Recalls, Recent Studies

Last year the Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a recall on Simplicity’s convertible “close-sleeper” bassinet. The bassinet has a feature that allows one side to open up so that the baby can sleep closer to the parent’s bed. However two deaths were reported when infants slipped beneath the railing and were suffocated between the railing and the mattress.

Unfortunately, the recall was confusing and some parents were never notified. Although all 900,000 bassinets were recalled, consumers were not told that 200,000 of them were sold with either a Graco logo or a Winnie the Pooh design. Then Simplicity went out of business in early 2009 and parents were unable to obtain refunds until a number of retailers agreed to provide store credit in exchange for the faulty bassinets.

Now two new infant deaths have been attributed to the Simplicity bassinet, and two more infants were trapped and released before any damage was done. The Safety Commission is strongly urging parents to stop using the product immediately.

Any parents who have purchased the Simplicity “close-sleeper” bassinet with the co-sleeper mode can obtain a refund at point of purchase.