Fisher-Price Recalls Millions Baby Sleepers After More Than 30 Infant Deaths

Baby sleeper products such as Rock ‘n Play produced by Fisher-Price have become popular due to their ability to rock infants to sleep during nap time. These products are essentially an inclined baby seat with straps that are meant to keep an infant securely in place and unable to roll over or topple out. However, approximately 5 million of the Rock ‘n Plays have recently been recalled due to at least 30 infant deaths since Fisher-Price released the product in 2009. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission is now warning parents who have these products in their homes of the potential threat to safety they can pose, according to BBC News.

Fisher-Price has previously warned parents to stop using the Rock ‘n Play after their child is old enough to sit up on its own or roll over. While some of the deaths resulted by use of the Rock ‘n Plays are believed to have occurred when babies restrained in the sleepers have rolled over onto the side or stomach, there have been children who reportedly died while sleeping in these products that were not yet at the age where they would have been able to roll around.

All of Fisher-Price's Rock 'n Play Sleepers are being recalled, with the Consumer Product Safety Commission linking the product to over 30 infant deaths in 10 years. The recall will impact about 4.7 million sleepers, the commission said. https://t.co/wxylWCpCwy pic.twitter.com/tZ3rptXPt1

— CNN (@CNN) April 12, 2019

Such was the case for 5-month-old Ezra Overton, the child of Keenan and Evan Overton. Ezra died three days before Christmas of 2017. He was asleep in the Fisher-Price sleeper while his dad, Keenan, napped on the couch next to him. When Keenan awoke, he found his son lying face down on the sleeper, already dead, according to CNN.

“I looked up and I found him in a standing position but faced down in the chair, his face was on the back of the seat and he was already passed away. I picked him up and his face was already blue and his nose was squished in.”

The Overtons now plan to sue Fisher-Price due to their son’s death. Evan stated that their main priority is to ensure other parents never have to go through their same heartbreak.

“Fisher-Price and Mattel, their parent company, we are in negotiations to discuss kind of what we expect from talking about and speaking out on the dangers of this chair. Our main thing is to inform other people so, that it won’t happen to somebody else.”

In a public statement, Fisher-Price said that they are working with the CSPC to prevent more accidents from occurring in the future. They stated that the recall is “voluntary” on their part and that the safety of the children that use their products remains their highest priority.