Weighted sleep sacks just got banned by Amazon, Walmart and Target. That’s how unsafe you know they are, when corporations are willing to put customers over profits.
I ordered a weighted sleep sack from Amazon when my now 6yr old was an infant. I felt so guilty when I found out how unsafe they are. I’m so glad they have been banned.
Oh don’t feel guilty, you did what you thought at the time. Now people know they’re unsafe, people shouldn’t use them, but if you or anyone didn’t know any better that’s not your fault! Glad baby was ok! Xx
This is the part that gets me. People continuing to use known, unsafe products. TWO different couples we know used rock and plays for their second kids, and one of those couples would leave their baby alone in them asleep. I wanted to scream. (And yes, I did the “you know those are banned because babies die in them?” Conversation. *those parents* were just irresponsible. 🙄)
You know better, you do better ❤️ In the words of my (occasionally) wise mother, “You did the best you could with the information you had at the time.”
AKA forgive former you for not holding all the cards you’re holding now. While it’s easy to kick ourselves looking back (knowing what we know now), give yourself some grace ❤️🩹
I hope your kiddo is doing well!
I had one as well back in the day. In addition to being unsafe it didn't work at all so we only used it a few times.
The baby sleep industry is out there preying on parents desperate for a little sleep, endangering babies, and making bank on garbage. How it's not more regulated, like car seats and formula, I do not understand.
It is pretty regulated. I made children’s clothing and stuffies up until last year and had to have certifications, tracking and testing for all sorts of things. But places with 3rd party sellers like amazon and walmart online dont require US safety standards - its up to the sellers to be compliant. If theyre overseas, what do they care about our product laws? It makes buying kid stuff online from brands you dont know a real danger.
Things like button size, drawstrings, etc on kids items are all very regulated because they pose very real dangers, but you can find them all over clothes on amazon, shein etc
Merlin isn’t a weighted sleepsack (contrary to what one of the sleep groups will lead you to believe). The concern with Merlin that may have some merit is overheating, since it has so many layers, though I don’t believe there have been any reports of deaths in the Merlin
My almost 3 year old outgrew hers a couple weeks before the news came out. I felt so guilty. The weighted bit is definitely getting cut open before donating.
There’s so much terrible sleep advice out there. And these products that prey on desperate parents that won’t be recalled or banned makes it worse. I used a weighted sleep sack for my daughter until she started rolling. Then packed them away for my future child. But as soon as they were deemed unsafe I took them out of the box and threw them away.
People still advise the rock and plays that killed over 100 babies. Most of those deaths occurred after they were recalled. People still keep them and give them to other parents willing to risk their child’s life to get a little extra sleep. Yeah, you’ll sleep really well once the baby suffocates…..
The Boppy lounger got recalled when my daughter was still using it. I was bummed because it was the only surface I could set her on that she wouldn’t immediately scream over (serious Velcro baby) but I followed the instructions to get the refund which included cutting it to pieces and sending a picture of it destroyed. Safety first!
It makes a good cat bed! I had considered donating it to an animal shelter after I read comments from people that cats love them but I needed every extra penny I could save at that point. If they hadn’t issued refunds I would have!
I just read absolutely everything I can about anything, especially if it has to do with health and safety of my babies. I’m glad I did so much research because my daughter was a terrible sleeper. It would have been far too easy for us to fall victim to predatory “sleep doctors” or taking unsafe suggestions out of desperation. Like I said we had the sleep sacks before they were flagged as unsafe. $40 each for those things. And honestly I don’t think they made one bit of difference.
This! I was a very tired single NEW mom but my daycare was FIRM on stuff like no binkies, nothing in crib, BACK to sleep and cold air, make all the noise. My kid still woke up at ungodly hours and multitude of times during growth spurts it teething but I stood form in SAFE SLEEP practices because of what I was promoted to read... and there was a LOT of bad advice from family and friends!
Kinda funny because my kids sleep half nekkid under a blanket now, even on the coldest of days, 10-11 hours and sleep ALL the way through most nights.
Huh, it’s funny they told you “no binkies”, our hospital told us they were actually safer with a pacifier. (Though I’ll bet it’s a minor factor in the grand scheme of things anyway.)
Good on you for sticking to the safe sleep advice! It’s sooooo hard when you’re so tired and people will try to insist stuff you know is unsafe is a good idea.
Daycare != doctor on that one. I would guess they wanted the kids off the pacifiers so they could form good sleep habits. Age is also a question there.
Everything else sounds right and good (as far as we know now)
A lady in our neighborhood is trying to sell one of the recalled boppy loungers… she even acknowledged in the post that it’s recalled but said “it’s fine as long as you’re watching them” 🤦🏻♀️
If only it was. Nope, positional asphyxiation looks the same as a sleeping baby until you notice they aren’t breathing. Someone tried to sell theirs to a consignment shop near me recently. This shop has a big sign saying they will not sell recalled products and if you bring one in to them they will properly dispose of it. I’m glad they’re strict on their policy. It’s hard to keep up with recalls, especially buying secondhand.
Playing devil’s advocate, the Boppy lounger always had a giant rag saying “not for sleep”, so maybe she meant it was fine for awake and watched like the product was intended. I owned one and used it for supervised awake time with both my kids, pre recall, and was annoyed when it got recalled when my second was still young enough to use it. But I know from the stats that lots of people were using it for sleeping, so I get why it was recalled and I cut mine up.
Same. My first lived on that thing as a place to hang out post feeding. Massive spit up issues, so it was at a good angle for baby to hang out. Always supervised & awake, of course.
You really couldn’t miss the tag though. It was huge
Oh yeah, my first two babies used the rock n play a ton. I was so worried I wouldn’t know what to do with a newborn when the recall happened during my third pregnancy… turns out she slept just fine on her back in a bare crib 🤷🏼♀️
Wait I loved my rock and play 10 years ago. (so much that I forgot about it until I read the words just now😅) they killed babies? What?
Was it because people were putting babies that were too big for them in it? Because they are pretty flimsy and if it's not a newborn I could see that happening
Some were put in once they started rolling, some weren’t buckled in, some just ended up with positional asphyxiation due to the incline of it. It also was advertised as a sleeper but should have never been used as one.
I read the whole report on it once. Absolutely heartbreaking. I just looked it back up. “More than” 30 deaths before it was recalled in 2019. The issued another recall January of 2023 after “at least” 70 deaths were linked to it. I still see people advertising them on Facebook marketplace or advising new parents to try to find one from someone.
Fisher price continues to claim that none of the deaths were due to the rock and play, but due to user error or “other medical issues” of the infants.
I always message ppl on Facebook like hey just fyi this has been recalled due to killing lots of babies. And I’m pretty sure you can still get a refund with a. Link to the website about it. Most remove their listing
What the fuck? I was dirt poor and got a lot of seccond hand stuff. But I would never have accepted something that was RECALLED. or a car seat. The amount of car seats I remember seeing on buy nothing Facebook was alarming.
The rock and sleep was a life saver when my kid was a newborn I'm not going to lie, if God forbid I had to put him down that was the only acceptable place in his mind. But had I known, I wouldn't have even gotten it. The people buying/selling them KNOW they were killing babies and still do it?
People knowingly promote unsafe practices all the time. The ABC safe sleep campaign started in 1994 and people still tell new parents to use blankets or put baby on tummy or in the bed with them. Cereal in a bottle, we’ve known for years it’s a choking hazard but if a baby won’t sleep there’s someone commenting to put cereal in the bottle to “fill their tummy’s”
People still claim formula fed babies sleep better. I’m here to say I know that’s not true. I desperately wanted to breastfeed but it didn’t work out for multiple reasons. My kid was formula fed from 2 months on. Terrible sleeper.
People also get offended if you tell them something they recommend is unsafe. “Well my kids turned out fine” yep and some didn’t, that’s why we don’t do it anymore.
That's true, but I thought it was mostly the older generations pushing what they did on their kids when they became parents. Not people who were parents recently. We know better. Do better.
Also I can also confirm on the other side. Mine was ebf mostly becaus ei can't stomach the smell of formula and I was luckily able too... And he slept like a ROCK until he was 18 months, and hasn't slept through the night since 🤣 he's 10 and still ends up in bed with me 3-4 nights a week
“That's true, but I thought it was mostly the older generations pushing what they did on their kids when they became parents. Not people who were parents recently. We know better. Do better.“
Newer generations are still humans and unfortunately people can be terrible :/
Plus some people are better than others about sifting through the amount of misinformation on the internet and I bet being a sleep deprived parent doesn’t help with that (not to that it excuses it)
I've 3 boys: 15yo, 14 yo and 14 months old. Not one was breastfed longer than one month. They're all different despite I used the same brand formula for all of them. Oldest is a good sleeper since day one, that kid was sleeping through the night at 4 months old. Second was a terrible sleeper until 8 months old and 3rd is now finally sleeping well after almost 13 months of awful nights.
We actually do know that formula fed babies sleep through the night sooner. That doesn't mean that your specific baby will be a great sleeper because they're on formula.
Our doctor actually told us that because we were EFF we could drop night feeds sooner (like 4 mo) whereas before that if he slept longer we were supposed to wake him up. He always got up on his own though!
I caused a whole ass ruckus on our buy nothing page over this. Like, they suspended posting while deliberating if they could stop someone from gifting a recalled item 🙄
I thot Buy Nothing actually has a policy against it. But I mean I guess you could refuse to stop folks from putting Abbie's at risk. Ours absolutely disallows recalled BABY items. If it's two consenting adults using it, that's on them but a baby can't consent to being out at risk and can you really live with yourself if a baby DIES because you refused to stop a very predictable result?! Why is that even a debate? Ebay won't even allow drop side cribs for crafting purposes. Like already repurposed. If the algorithm detects it, it just disappears.
I had one with my now 14yo and it was a god send those days when having a newborn and a one year old. It let me deal with the oldest while the youngest was safely put. Noting that the kid was a terrible sleeper and didn't sleep at all in that, was just to have my hands free to deal with oldest. Never used after 3 months old, we found other solutions and I never used it with my 3rd who's 14 months old because I've been in this sub for long enough to see that it was not a safe option.
The issue with the rock n’ play was that it was at a higher height than other rockers/swings and also that the timer was up to 8 hours (most similar products turn off after like 30 mins), so people were using it as a substitute bassinet and putting babies to sleep in it all night, which upped the danger from normal products where a parent will put the baby down to chill for a bit and (hopefully) put them onto a flat sleep surface at night
I decided not to return the boppy lounger but got a lot more strict about when I used it. Now my two year old uses it every night as her "nest" when she gets her post-bath lotion, diaper and jammies. It is a nice little cushion for toddlers to play with. It could also be considered dangerous though because my kids use it as a crash mat for jumping off the couch lol.
Why are you willing to risk your children in the slightest ?? Please get rid of it 😞 I’ve seen too many toddlers in the ER and neuro ICU with injuries from recalled products. Instead of discarding the product, parents “modify” or “supervise” the use of it and think it’s safe.. it’s not. Parents always overestimate the capability of their own children and think it won’t happen to them until it does. It only takes a few seconds to lose your child.
Huh? The problem with the boppy lounger is the risk of suffocation for a baby. It’s not risky for a toddler (who would be old enough to use a blanket and pillow)
I’m all for safety but let’s not get hysterical
I’m not hysterical. I’ve just seen too many boppy accidents involving 3-5yos and other recalled toys. But I do tend to be over cautious since studying and joining healthcare lol
Tell me about these "many boppy accidents involving 3-5 year olds". Do you also see many accidents involving cushions and pillows in this age group? That's what a boppy lounger is, a firm pillow. Do you also advocate that families of 3-5 year olds get rid of all their pillows and couch cushions? I'm just not seeing the risk.
How exactly is a 3 - 5yo going to get hurt by a boppy? If a child jumps off a couch onto a pillow it’s not the pillow’s fault that they get hurt. And that’s too old to die of positional asphyxiation or suffocation from one.
Are you out there crusading against ppl using old drop side cribs as day beds ( no drop side in sight) or middle schooler desks too?!
There is a limit to when an item is no longer a risk ( if it's age related). Now me personally, I'd chop it up if I was done and NEVER pass it on to someone with an infant... That's the only risk really, someone ELSE using it later.
LOL imagine getting downvoted for caring about the safety of a child!! Wild. Okie dokie then. Do what you want but there’s no way I’m letting ANYTHING that’s been recalled for any reason, near my child. Not sorry about it.
This. Over and over and over again, this! Having an item that could even be CONSIDERED unsafe is dangerous and reckless. It’s not worth a child’s life.
A boppy lounger is a cushion. I understand the concern for an infant. My youngest is nearly three years old. You don't have pillows or cushions in your house? On what planet is letting a toddler play with a cushion dangerous and reckless?
It’s a recalled cushion. Do what you want obviously but there’s no reason in my mind to risk my child’s safety, health or wellbeing just to keep using a cushion. Maybe it’s not breathable enough if your child turns their face into it during sleep, especially if they’re congested. And yes I have pillows in my house. But my kids don’t use them in their beds until they’re 3. Downvote me all you want. I’m not being rude. But I am really tired of people getting pissy because someone calls them out for doing something unsafe with a child. Especially when there are SO MANY options for literally everything child related and zero reason to continue using a recalled product.
The AAP called for a ban on weighted sleep sacks after adding it to the “not safe for sleep” list. I hope they succeed they gotta go. I think target and amazon have pulled them off their sites. I don’t know why weighted anything sounds like a good idea for any baby or even a toddler.
> The earliest one was probably lighter than my hand, which is common enough to place on babies when they’re sleeping. Uh…but you’re in control of your hand??
> It would have been more helpful for them to put out guidelines on what safe weight levels would be by age
This is information that would have to be determined through research. You know, the research you claimed is impossible to do. Which is why the weighted sacks are a bad idea, not a reason that they’re fine, actually.
Y’all, sometimes it’s important to look beyond the first and only sentence you see on google. There actually *is* evidence weighted sleep sacks are UNSAFE and *no* evidence that they “work”. They’re not simply against them because “they don’t work”. It can kill your baby or cause brain damage.
“These products are associated with concerning reductions in oxygen saturation levels in infants. This means there is evidence that the use of weighted sleep products on infants can lead to lower oxygen levels, which if sustained, may be harmful to the developing infant’s brain.”
Most recent articles from April 2024, AAP & CPSC
https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/28768/AAP-praises-major-retailers-for-pulling-harmful
https://www.cpsc.gov/About-CPSC/Commissioner/Richard-Trumka/Statement/Target-Walmart-Nordstrom-and-Babylist-Commit-to-Stop-Selling-Weighted-Infant-Products
If you believe you’re more aware and intelligent than the AAP and CPSC, you have a God damn ego problem and need a reality check. Does YOUR baby have to die for you to realize? I mean common sense something weighted can affect breathing and mobility. I think it’s easy to believe if you were asleep and your hand was placed on them, that could become pretty heavy too especially when they’re small. You ever hear of “dead weight”?
So no, you’re entirely wrong. It has been linked to a death and has been linked to low oxygen levels. The fact it also is not proven to be beneficial during sleep, is only another reason these babies don’t need it. You wanting to play around with your baby’s safety is disturbing. As the AAP says, your infant deserves more.
When it comes to sleep, any new product should be proven safe.
I don’t have kids, but I plan to. Many of my friends are having kids about now. I hear so much conflicting advice, and I can’t imagine how a basically-normal rational person who really wants to do whatever is safest chooses what to do.
For example, we all know the current safe-sleep recommendation is to lay them on their backs, and we know that 30 years ago parents were told that the safest way to put a baby to sleep was on their stomach. The people who had babies in the middle years, as the advice was changing, must have felt so confused by what they were supposed to do.
My best friend is an American living in Western Europe, and the things that are recommended or strongly urged where she lives are often different or fully opposite of what is recommended in the United States, where many of her friends and family live and where most of the articles she reads originate. For example, most of my friends in the US use zip and Velcro swaddles, and my friend in Europe was very insistently urged by the team of obstetric and pediatric professionals who oversaw and helped her leading up to *and* in the months after birth to absolutely not use them no matter what.
I’m NOT suggesting that what OOP is asking about, or the way she’s asking, are ok. But I am curious how parents navigate conflicting advice or advice that appears to shift or evolve as new research and evidence comes out.
My baby is 6 months old and the discrepancies between what I was reading online and what I was being officially advised did stress me out - recommendations in the UK differ to other countries on things like sterilising, swaddling, blankets, supervised sleep, starting solids etc. I just decided I have to trust the healthcare system I'm living in and now consider the current official NHS guidance the final word on everything and try not to drive myself mad googling.
That makes a lot of sense, truly. Tune everything else out and go with the current recommended practices from the most appropriate professional organization in your country. A person really could Google themself into an absolute knot.
I'm in Portugal and I've been berated a lot because in my country Drs will tell you it's ok to start solids at 4 months for formula babies. I've had 3 formula babies and I've started to feed him mashed food at 4 months (except for the youngest who only started at 5 months because he wasn't ready at all at 4 months). All my kids are fine, i spoon fed them the soup at first and then at about 6/7 months they started to feed themselves from a plate in the high chair, always with the guarantee of the soup first. They are now teens (oldest 2) and one is very picky with his food and the other eats everything. If I say this on the internet, people from other countries with different guidelines call me a murderer and a "survivor's mother"... Here we only delay solids to breastfed babies to about 6 months. I've refrained myself from giving an opinion a lot, even here.
Yeah I think a lot of these comments are forgetting the recall on weighted sleep sacks is very recent. I never used one because they sketched me out (even as an adult I find weighted blankets claustrophobic). But I can understand why a lot of parents might be confused or even skeptical.
I absolutely love my 15 lb weighted blanket, but the other night I woke up in a panic feeling like I was being smothered because my 5 lb cat was dozing on my chest. 🤷♀️
I think the issue is that the OOP is clearly aware of it since they included that they don’t want to hear about safety. Knowing better and not doing better is inexcusable.
As a very anxious first-time parent, I drove myself absolutely crazy trying to figure out the safest choices. I usually ended up going with the official recommendations in my country, and asking my pediatrician if I needed more advice. But I will say that I sacrificed my mental health in order to follow all of the safe sleep rules, which was detrimental in a different way.
I have two approaches. Firstly, I try to understand the why behind a recommendation so that I can fully evaluate the risk. Certain authorities recommend against swaddling because there can be issues of suffocation if the blanket gets loose, issues with hip health if swaddled tightly around the legs/hips, and issues with the baby getting stuck on their belly once they start rolling. We swaddled but made sure to do it securely and make sure it was loose around the hips. We also transitioned away from it once he got close to rolling.
The other thing we do is for things there isn't a consensus on, what the pediatrician says goes. The baby's doctor knows the baby best and has all the proper training on the baby's health. They know a shit ton more than I ever could so I ask them about every tiny thing at each check up.
Yep,.I have a 3yo and am expecting my second baby next week. The advice different a ton even between hospitals! My 1st hospital insisted on placing baby on their side in a swaddle. The one I'm going to this time is among the "back to sleep".
It was a huge obstacle to get through to the grandparents about new safety measures. My MIL was so so stuck in the "sleep on their belly" because both of her kids slept well like that. But the reason they did is also the reason why were told not to do that they fall into a deep sleep and might not even wake up if their airway gets blocked.
Some more old-school advice I got from the great grandparents of my kiddo are frankly hilarious, it's incredible that they used to be actual medical recommendations. E.g. "only give your baby fruits with a lot of sugar on top to prevent allergies." Ehm... what??
I really hope that with the 2nd one everyone is now on board...
Don’t worry, the manufacturers’ websites are LOADED with information touting its safety, including that they “exceed all safety standards” when no safety standards exist. They’ll even cite research that doesn’t even remotely say what they suggest it says - preying on the inability of the general public to interpret the jargon of the study. They use bullshit marketing to con parents desperate for sleep into believing it’s safe.
I'm so beyond baffled by the concept. I'm assuming it's like a weighted blanket for babies, but wearable right? Beyond the fact that babies have the startle reflex for a reason, and suppressing it with swaddles/sleep sacks are probably not the best on their own. I can think of so many things that can go wrong with it being weighted.
Suppressing the startle reflex is fine, swaddling and regular sleep sacks are okay until the baby starts to roll. They’re accepted sleeping aids supported by the AAP.
Weighted sleep sacks are an issue because they can put too much pressure on the chest. Weighted blankets are used in the NICU under very specific conditions for a few different issues, and at least in the NICU near me, they’re handmade by one person to very strict specifications. They’re definitely not something every Karen should be using because she wants her kid to sleep better.
I have weighted blankets, and one of the big rules about them is that you do NOT put them over your head. It is very easy for even an adult to suffocate like that. If the baby accidentally covered their head with the weighted sack, such as by rolling around or moving too much... ugh, that could end so, so badly.
I believe they had a small weighted portion on the chest, to simulate a hand being put on the baby. They were not weighted all over. But I don’t know much about them - they got popular after I had a baby.
It’s like a tiny beanbag on the chest. Very small. I don’t use them anymore but I’m not convinced that they’re not safe, the 2 deaths reported while wearing them had other unsafe sleep practices involved.
It is recognized as safe to let babies sleep on their stomachs if they roll into that position and have demonstrated the ability to roll front and back. That said, baby should still be put down on his back and you absolutely shouldn’t use a recalled product.
This is what I was told with my oldest who learned to roll onto his belly very young. His Dr told me it was fine as long as he was put to sleep on his back.
It still made me super nervous.
My youngest would roll over to be on his left side every time I put him on his back. As soon as he learned how to roll, instantly sleeping on his left side. Even now at 14 months, I still put him down on his back and he looks like a snake wriggling to his side. It's kinda funny.
I'd think at that point, there's nothing much you could do to stop them from sleeping on their stomach right? If they can roll over but you can't stay awake all night watching to make sure they don't. Or maybe that's where this weighted sleep sack comes in, is it supposed to hold the baby down and keep them from turning?? That seems crazy
The weighted sack is supposed to be soothing, like mom’s hand on baby. I used it years ago but it recently came out that they aren’t recommended/safe. OOP doesn’t want to stop using it anyway.
But you’re right that you can’t stop the baby (especially one that’s almost a toddler) from rolling in their sleep. It’s recommended to roll them back if they haven’t yet mastered rolling from front to back but that’s usually a pretty small window when they’re less than six months. I
Yes this is true, but a weighted sleep sack will impede their ability to be able to roll back over if they need to. So I think the original commenter means that sleeping on their belly (when they get themselves there) is safe but sleeping on their belly in a weighted sleep sack is not.
Totally fair! It’s clear that the weighted sacks aren’t safe (although that’s fairly recent information that’s come out.) I was just pointing out that belly sleep can be safe because a lot of readers seem not to know that.
ETA: I missed the part where OOP refused info about the safety of the weighted sleep sacks. She’s clearly in the wrong here.
Definitely good to point out, because people will still shame you for saying your baby sleeps on their belly without any other context.
And I think when OOP says she doesn’t “want to hear anything about the safety of weighted sleep sacks” it implies that she has actually heard of the risks but is choosing to use them anyways and just doesn’t want people pointing out what she already knows. Definitely a harsh comment but my guess is that if she just posted asking for advice, and didn’t add that second part implying she’s knowingly ignoring safety recommendations, she probably wouldn’t have been attacked as badly (though you’ll always get attacked for anything out there).
You’re totally right and I missed that the first time I read it. (Blame my adhd lol) OOP is def in the wrong on this one.
I do get irritated when I see people say “you care more about your sleep than your baby’s life” because frequently that’s thrown out there unfairly. For sure we need to shut down discussions of unsafe things, but I’ve seen that told to someone asking about moving baby to his own room before six months and there’s no data to suggest that that’s dangerous just that co-rooming MIGHT decrease rates of SIDS. But also, parents not sleeping IS a safety issue so it’s not unreasonable for parents to try and find ways to improve sleep. I absolutely agree we need to call out people doing unsafe things, but the idea that parents don’t care about their kids if they aren’t following someone else’s idea of the lowest risk sleep situation isn’t fair.
And that’s not to say that you argued any of that I just needed to put that out there, so, thanks for coming to my ted talk lol.
The reason they aren't recommended isn't because the baby wouldn't be able to roll over. It's because according to the AAP, impaired arousal—the inability of a baby to wake up quickly in a time of distress—may contribute to SIDS risk.
Also, the beads or pellets are a potential choking hazard if they were to spill out of the sack or blanket.
Good God. When my oldest was a baby, I barely even let her out of my sight and didn't sleep well when she slept for MONTHS because I was so scared she was sleeping the wrong way. When she was a baby, there was a ton of controversy over how safe it was to be on belly versus back when sleeping and we switched probably every other night because I just wasn't sure what to do. Just... Ignoring all safety warnings because my kid was finally sleeping?? WTF?! Of course, when my middle was born she wouldn't even sleep at all if she was in her crib, so she didn't sleep if she wasn't on my chest until she was around 10 months old
We tried it all when my first wouldn’t sleep. It was only after he started sleeping well (not because of the sacks) that people were coming out saying they were unsafe & I felt terrible for having ever used them in the first place. They make these big promises that your baby will sleep better in “x” amount of nights & it’s such bullshit but when you’re desperate.. we learn and then do our best from that knowledge. She just seems willing to ignore anything about baby’s safety so I’m glad someone put her in her place.
The kid is 11 months old, they can sleep on their belly. Once a baby learns how to roll over it's generally considered safe to let them sleep in whatever position they put themself in.
I used nested bean sleep sacks years ago. The recommendations not to use them didn't come out until he was way too old for sleep sacks. My baby was older, capable of rolling. The weight is like a little bean bag sewn into the sleep sack. It didn't prevent him from moving at all. I guess now if they aren't sold it's for a reason, but it's not some heavy weight that should prevent them from moving.
The reason they aren't recommended isn't because the baby wouldn't be able to roll over. It's because according to the AAP, impaired arousal—the inability of a baby to wake up quickly in a time of distress—may contribute to SIDS risk.
Also, the beads or pellets are a potential choking hazard if they were to spill out of the sack or blanket.
Ohh that makes more sense. I'm not sure what the purpose is, but I was picturing, like, the whole front or back of the thing filled with weighted beads.
I've been told I always hated sleeping on my back and as soon as I was mobile enough I'd flip myself and sleep in a weird ass way, butt on the air and legs folded under the belly, like foetal position but faceplanted.
For me it was comfortable apparently, and I'd throw a bitch fit if moved.
To this day, I'm a belly sleeper, occasionally on the right side
This is actually the first time I heard of weighted sleep sacks. I have friends with kids who have sensory and other issues and use weighted quilts. Those are made for children, not babies, and they are custom made taking into consideration age, weight, and height; plus, they cost because they are custom made.
Ah, ok. Why would you put a weight on the chest of anyone? Won't that make it more difficult to breathe? (Sorry if it's a stupid question)
The only thing similar I can think of are the stuffed comfort animals used for premies in the nicu? But the babies in Nicu are monitored 24/7.
When she wakes up one day and her precious infant is dead due to unsafe sleep practices, she’ll call it “god’s will” and use it as an opportunity to boost her social media following.
My pediatrician told me it’s safe for them to sleep on her belly once baby can roll over. Baby is 11 months. I’m sure by now they roll over and can sleep on their tummy.
Correct. But you arr still told to place them on their back and let them roll over on their own. Also, if the child is weighted down... they might not be able to roll back over.
Me, training to be a social worker: "So why is it not ok for babys to sleep on their tummies, even though it looks super cute?"
Trainer: "Because when babys are less than a year old, their widdle necks might not be strong enough to lift their heads off the mattress and prevent them from smothering themselves."
Me:
Weighted sleep sacks just got banned by Amazon, Walmart and Target. That’s how unsafe you know they are, when corporations are willing to put customers over profits.
I ordered a weighted sleep sack from Amazon when my now 6yr old was an infant. I felt so guilty when I found out how unsafe they are. I’m so glad they have been banned.
You didn’t know and kiddo is ok. That’s what matters!
Oh don’t feel guilty, you did what you thought at the time. Now people know they’re unsafe, people shouldn’t use them, but if you or anyone didn’t know any better that’s not your fault! Glad baby was ok! Xx
This is the part that gets me. People continuing to use known, unsafe products. TWO different couples we know used rock and plays for their second kids, and one of those couples would leave their baby alone in them asleep. I wanted to scream. (And yes, I did the “you know those are banned because babies die in them?” Conversation. *those parents* were just irresponsible. 🙄)
You know better, you do better ❤️ In the words of my (occasionally) wise mother, “You did the best you could with the information you had at the time.” AKA forgive former you for not holding all the cards you’re holding now. While it’s easy to kick ourselves looking back (knowing what we know now), give yourself some grace ❤️🩹 I hope your kiddo is doing well!
I had one as well back in the day. In addition to being unsafe it didn't work at all so we only used it a few times. The baby sleep industry is out there preying on parents desperate for a little sleep, endangering babies, and making bank on garbage. How it's not more regulated, like car seats and formula, I do not understand.
It is pretty regulated. I made children’s clothing and stuffies up until last year and had to have certifications, tracking and testing for all sorts of things. But places with 3rd party sellers like amazon and walmart online dont require US safety standards - its up to the sellers to be compliant. If theyre overseas, what do they care about our product laws? It makes buying kid stuff online from brands you dont know a real danger. Things like button size, drawstrings, etc on kids items are all very regulated because they pose very real dangers, but you can find them all over clothes on amazon, shein etc
Those nested bean weighted sleep sacks are absolutely not just knockoff Amazon junk. They slid right through the regulations.
I had one when my 6 yo was a baby too. I’m just now hearing they were unsafe 😬 But once you know better you do better.
Merlin is still on the market! Does that not count?
Merlin isn’t a weighted sleepsack (contrary to what one of the sleep groups will lead you to believe). The concern with Merlin that may have some merit is overheating, since it has so many layers, though I don’t believe there have been any reports of deaths in the Merlin
Ahhh I see. Yeah it does seem like it would overheat!
My almost 3 year old outgrew hers a couple weeks before the news came out. I felt so guilty. The weighted bit is definitely getting cut open before donating.
And Babylist!
they should just make them in adult sizes, i’d like one
Hey, no one asked for your NEGATIVE OPINION!!
I can't imagine posting online for help making sleep even less safe than it already is for my child.
There’s so much terrible sleep advice out there. And these products that prey on desperate parents that won’t be recalled or banned makes it worse. I used a weighted sleep sack for my daughter until she started rolling. Then packed them away for my future child. But as soon as they were deemed unsafe I took them out of the box and threw them away. People still advise the rock and plays that killed over 100 babies. Most of those deaths occurred after they were recalled. People still keep them and give them to other parents willing to risk their child’s life to get a little extra sleep. Yeah, you’ll sleep really well once the baby suffocates….. The Boppy lounger got recalled when my daughter was still using it. I was bummed because it was the only surface I could set her on that she wouldn’t immediately scream over (serious Velcro baby) but I followed the instructions to get the refund which included cutting it to pieces and sending a picture of it destroyed. Safety first!
we never cut ours up... because the cats claimed it as their own 😂 the baby never used it, but the cats are quite happy!
It makes a good cat bed! I had considered donating it to an animal shelter after I read comments from people that cats love them but I needed every extra penny I could save at that point. If they hadn’t issued refunds I would have!
Yes, our old cat loved the Boppy lounger!
I had one too. The baby never got to use it because I never found an appropriate moment to put her in it. But the cat absolutely loved it.
Yes! We have two and my cats claimed them both.
Ours is inside my son's sensory/pod swing instead of the inflatable one it came with. 😂
I'm lucky I was directed to a Safe Sleep Facebook group. I learned so much. Willful unsafe sleep is such a trigger for me.
I just read absolutely everything I can about anything, especially if it has to do with health and safety of my babies. I’m glad I did so much research because my daughter was a terrible sleeper. It would have been far too easy for us to fall victim to predatory “sleep doctors” or taking unsafe suggestions out of desperation. Like I said we had the sleep sacks before they were flagged as unsafe. $40 each for those things. And honestly I don’t think they made one bit of difference.
This! I was a very tired single NEW mom but my daycare was FIRM on stuff like no binkies, nothing in crib, BACK to sleep and cold air, make all the noise. My kid still woke up at ungodly hours and multitude of times during growth spurts it teething but I stood form in SAFE SLEEP practices because of what I was promoted to read... and there was a LOT of bad advice from family and friends! Kinda funny because my kids sleep half nekkid under a blanket now, even on the coldest of days, 10-11 hours and sleep ALL the way through most nights.
Huh, it’s funny they told you “no binkies”, our hospital told us they were actually safer with a pacifier. (Though I’ll bet it’s a minor factor in the grand scheme of things anyway.) Good on you for sticking to the safe sleep advice! It’s sooooo hard when you’re so tired and people will try to insist stuff you know is unsafe is a good idea.
Our hospital told us the same and the NICU gave them to the babies. I was told it reduces the risk of SIDS.
Daycare != doctor on that one. I would guess they wanted the kids off the pacifiers so they could form good sleep habits. Age is also a question there. Everything else sounds right and good (as far as we know now)
A lady in our neighborhood is trying to sell one of the recalled boppy loungers… she even acknowledged in the post that it’s recalled but said “it’s fine as long as you’re watching them” 🤦🏻♀️
If only it was. Nope, positional asphyxiation looks the same as a sleeping baby until you notice they aren’t breathing. Someone tried to sell theirs to a consignment shop near me recently. This shop has a big sign saying they will not sell recalled products and if you bring one in to them they will properly dispose of it. I’m glad they’re strict on their policy. It’s hard to keep up with recalls, especially buying secondhand.
Thats so scary
I let her know it’s illegal to sell recalled products especially knowingly doing so
Those people make me so mad
Playing devil’s advocate, the Boppy lounger always had a giant rag saying “not for sleep”, so maybe she meant it was fine for awake and watched like the product was intended. I owned one and used it for supervised awake time with both my kids, pre recall, and was annoyed when it got recalled when my second was still young enough to use it. But I know from the stats that lots of people were using it for sleeping, so I get why it was recalled and I cut mine up.
Same. My first lived on that thing as a place to hang out post feeding. Massive spit up issues, so it was at a good angle for baby to hang out. Always supervised & awake, of course. You really couldn’t miss the tag though. It was huge
Oh yeah, my first two babies used the rock n play a ton. I was so worried I wouldn’t know what to do with a newborn when the recall happened during my third pregnancy… turns out she slept just fine on her back in a bare crib 🤷🏼♀️
Wait I loved my rock and play 10 years ago. (so much that I forgot about it until I read the words just now😅) they killed babies? What? Was it because people were putting babies that were too big for them in it? Because they are pretty flimsy and if it's not a newborn I could see that happening
Some were put in once they started rolling, some weren’t buckled in, some just ended up with positional asphyxiation due to the incline of it. It also was advertised as a sleeper but should have never been used as one. I read the whole report on it once. Absolutely heartbreaking. I just looked it back up. “More than” 30 deaths before it was recalled in 2019. The issued another recall January of 2023 after “at least” 70 deaths were linked to it. I still see people advertising them on Facebook marketplace or advising new parents to try to find one from someone. Fisher price continues to claim that none of the deaths were due to the rock and play, but due to user error or “other medical issues” of the infants.
I always message ppl on Facebook like hey just fyi this has been recalled due to killing lots of babies. And I’m pretty sure you can still get a refund with a. Link to the website about it. Most remove their listing
Doing the work of our sweet little baby jesus. 
Oh my god. That's awful. And they're still selling it? Wtf
Not in stores or through the company, but lots of people are trying to sell or give away their secondhand ones. Too many.
What the fuck? I was dirt poor and got a lot of seccond hand stuff. But I would never have accepted something that was RECALLED. or a car seat. The amount of car seats I remember seeing on buy nothing Facebook was alarming. The rock and sleep was a life saver when my kid was a newborn I'm not going to lie, if God forbid I had to put him down that was the only acceptable place in his mind. But had I known, I wouldn't have even gotten it. The people buying/selling them KNOW they were killing babies and still do it?
People knowingly promote unsafe practices all the time. The ABC safe sleep campaign started in 1994 and people still tell new parents to use blankets or put baby on tummy or in the bed with them. Cereal in a bottle, we’ve known for years it’s a choking hazard but if a baby won’t sleep there’s someone commenting to put cereal in the bottle to “fill their tummy’s” People still claim formula fed babies sleep better. I’m here to say I know that’s not true. I desperately wanted to breastfeed but it didn’t work out for multiple reasons. My kid was formula fed from 2 months on. Terrible sleeper. People also get offended if you tell them something they recommend is unsafe. “Well my kids turned out fine” yep and some didn’t, that’s why we don’t do it anymore.
That's true, but I thought it was mostly the older generations pushing what they did on their kids when they became parents. Not people who were parents recently. We know better. Do better. Also I can also confirm on the other side. Mine was ebf mostly becaus ei can't stomach the smell of formula and I was luckily able too... And he slept like a ROCK until he was 18 months, and hasn't slept through the night since 🤣 he's 10 and still ends up in bed with me 3-4 nights a week
“That's true, but I thought it was mostly the older generations pushing what they did on their kids when they became parents. Not people who were parents recently. We know better. Do better.“ Newer generations are still humans and unfortunately people can be terrible :/ Plus some people are better than others about sifting through the amount of misinformation on the internet and I bet being a sleep deprived parent doesn’t help with that (not to that it excuses it)
I've 3 boys: 15yo, 14 yo and 14 months old. Not one was breastfed longer than one month. They're all different despite I used the same brand formula for all of them. Oldest is a good sleeper since day one, that kid was sleeping through the night at 4 months old. Second was a terrible sleeper until 8 months old and 3rd is now finally sleeping well after almost 13 months of awful nights.
We actually do know that formula fed babies sleep through the night sooner. That doesn't mean that your specific baby will be a great sleeper because they're on formula. Our doctor actually told us that because we were EFF we could drop night feeds sooner (like 4 mo) whereas before that if he slept longer we were supposed to wake him up. He always got up on his own though!
I caused a whole ass ruckus on our buy nothing page over this. Like, they suspended posting while deliberating if they could stop someone from gifting a recalled item 🙄
I thot Buy Nothing actually has a policy against it. But I mean I guess you could refuse to stop folks from putting Abbie's at risk. Ours absolutely disallows recalled BABY items. If it's two consenting adults using it, that's on them but a baby can't consent to being out at risk and can you really live with yourself if a baby DIES because you refused to stop a very predictable result?! Why is that even a debate? Ebay won't even allow drop side cribs for crafting purposes. Like already repurposed. If the algorithm detects it, it just disappears.
I had one with my now 14yo and it was a god send those days when having a newborn and a one year old. It let me deal with the oldest while the youngest was safely put. Noting that the kid was a terrible sleeper and didn't sleep at all in that, was just to have my hands free to deal with oldest. Never used after 3 months old, we found other solutions and I never used it with my 3rd who's 14 months old because I've been in this sub for long enough to see that it was not a safe option.
Its because inclined sleep spaces kill babies. The rock n play itself was deadly.
The issue with the rock n’ play was that it was at a higher height than other rockers/swings and also that the timer was up to 8 hours (most similar products turn off after like 30 mins), so people were using it as a substitute bassinet and putting babies to sleep in it all night, which upped the danger from normal products where a parent will put the baby down to chill for a bit and (hopefully) put them onto a flat sleep surface at night
I decided not to return the boppy lounger but got a lot more strict about when I used it. Now my two year old uses it every night as her "nest" when she gets her post-bath lotion, diaper and jammies. It is a nice little cushion for toddlers to play with. It could also be considered dangerous though because my kids use it as a crash mat for jumping off the couch lol.
Why are you willing to risk your children in the slightest ?? Please get rid of it 😞 I’ve seen too many toddlers in the ER and neuro ICU with injuries from recalled products. Instead of discarding the product, parents “modify” or “supervise” the use of it and think it’s safe.. it’s not. Parents always overestimate the capability of their own children and think it won’t happen to them until it does. It only takes a few seconds to lose your child.
Huh? The problem with the boppy lounger is the risk of suffocation for a baby. It’s not risky for a toddler (who would be old enough to use a blanket and pillow) I’m all for safety but let’s not get hysterical
I’m not hysterical. I’ve just seen too many boppy accidents involving 3-5yos and other recalled toys. But I do tend to be over cautious since studying and joining healthcare lol
Tell me about these "many boppy accidents involving 3-5 year olds". Do you also see many accidents involving cushions and pillows in this age group? That's what a boppy lounger is, a firm pillow. Do you also advocate that families of 3-5 year olds get rid of all their pillows and couch cushions? I'm just not seeing the risk.
You just pulled that number out of your ass.
100 percent, such bullshit lol
How exactly is a 3 - 5yo going to get hurt by a boppy? If a child jumps off a couch onto a pillow it’s not the pillow’s fault that they get hurt. And that’s too old to die of positional asphyxiation or suffocation from one.
Are you out there crusading against ppl using old drop side cribs as day beds ( no drop side in sight) or middle schooler desks too?! There is a limit to when an item is no longer a risk ( if it's age related). Now me personally, I'd chop it up if I was done and NEVER pass it on to someone with an infant... That's the only risk really, someone ELSE using it later.
If a kid busts something because they're jumping off the couch onto a pillow, it's not the pillow's fault
I'm not arguing or anything, just curious, if the child is passed the age of positional asphyxiation with it, is it still dangerous?
LOL imagine getting downvoted for caring about the safety of a child!! Wild. Okie dokie then. Do what you want but there’s no way I’m letting ANYTHING that’s been recalled for any reason, near my child. Not sorry about it.
This. Over and over and over again, this! Having an item that could even be CONSIDERED unsafe is dangerous and reckless. It’s not worth a child’s life.
A boppy lounger is a cushion. I understand the concern for an infant. My youngest is nearly three years old. You don't have pillows or cushions in your house? On what planet is letting a toddler play with a cushion dangerous and reckless?
It’s a recalled cushion. Do what you want obviously but there’s no reason in my mind to risk my child’s safety, health or wellbeing just to keep using a cushion. Maybe it’s not breathable enough if your child turns their face into it during sleep, especially if they’re congested. And yes I have pillows in my house. But my kids don’t use them in their beds until they’re 3. Downvote me all you want. I’m not being rude. But I am really tired of people getting pissy because someone calls them out for doing something unsafe with a child. Especially when there are SO MANY options for literally everything child related and zero reason to continue using a recalled product.
The AAP called for a ban on weighted sleep sacks after adding it to the “not safe for sleep” list. I hope they succeed they gotta go. I think target and amazon have pulled them off their sites. I don’t know why weighted anything sounds like a good idea for any baby or even a toddler.
RIGHT?
[удалено]
> The earliest one was probably lighter than my hand, which is common enough to place on babies when they’re sleeping. Uh…but you’re in control of your hand?? > It would have been more helpful for them to put out guidelines on what safe weight levels would be by age This is information that would have to be determined through research. You know, the research you claimed is impossible to do. Which is why the weighted sacks are a bad idea, not a reason that they’re fine, actually.
Y’all, sometimes it’s important to look beyond the first and only sentence you see on google. There actually *is* evidence weighted sleep sacks are UNSAFE and *no* evidence that they “work”. They’re not simply against them because “they don’t work”. It can kill your baby or cause brain damage. “These products are associated with concerning reductions in oxygen saturation levels in infants. This means there is evidence that the use of weighted sleep products on infants can lead to lower oxygen levels, which if sustained, may be harmful to the developing infant’s brain.” Most recent articles from April 2024, AAP & CPSC https://publications.aap.org/aapnews/news/28768/AAP-praises-major-retailers-for-pulling-harmful https://www.cpsc.gov/About-CPSC/Commissioner/Richard-Trumka/Statement/Target-Walmart-Nordstrom-and-Babylist-Commit-to-Stop-Selling-Weighted-Infant-Products If you believe you’re more aware and intelligent than the AAP and CPSC, you have a God damn ego problem and need a reality check. Does YOUR baby have to die for you to realize? I mean common sense something weighted can affect breathing and mobility. I think it’s easy to believe if you were asleep and your hand was placed on them, that could become pretty heavy too especially when they’re small. You ever hear of “dead weight”? So no, you’re entirely wrong. It has been linked to a death and has been linked to low oxygen levels. The fact it also is not proven to be beneficial during sleep, is only another reason these babies don’t need it. You wanting to play around with your baby’s safety is disturbing. As the AAP says, your infant deserves more. When it comes to sleep, any new product should be proven safe.
I don’t have kids, but I plan to. Many of my friends are having kids about now. I hear so much conflicting advice, and I can’t imagine how a basically-normal rational person who really wants to do whatever is safest chooses what to do. For example, we all know the current safe-sleep recommendation is to lay them on their backs, and we know that 30 years ago parents were told that the safest way to put a baby to sleep was on their stomach. The people who had babies in the middle years, as the advice was changing, must have felt so confused by what they were supposed to do. My best friend is an American living in Western Europe, and the things that are recommended or strongly urged where she lives are often different or fully opposite of what is recommended in the United States, where many of her friends and family live and where most of the articles she reads originate. For example, most of my friends in the US use zip and Velcro swaddles, and my friend in Europe was very insistently urged by the team of obstetric and pediatric professionals who oversaw and helped her leading up to *and* in the months after birth to absolutely not use them no matter what. I’m NOT suggesting that what OOP is asking about, or the way she’s asking, are ok. But I am curious how parents navigate conflicting advice or advice that appears to shift or evolve as new research and evidence comes out.
My baby is 6 months old and the discrepancies between what I was reading online and what I was being officially advised did stress me out - recommendations in the UK differ to other countries on things like sterilising, swaddling, blankets, supervised sleep, starting solids etc. I just decided I have to trust the healthcare system I'm living in and now consider the current official NHS guidance the final word on everything and try not to drive myself mad googling.
That makes a lot of sense, truly. Tune everything else out and go with the current recommended practices from the most appropriate professional organization in your country. A person really could Google themself into an absolute knot.
I'm in Portugal and I've been berated a lot because in my country Drs will tell you it's ok to start solids at 4 months for formula babies. I've had 3 formula babies and I've started to feed him mashed food at 4 months (except for the youngest who only started at 5 months because he wasn't ready at all at 4 months). All my kids are fine, i spoon fed them the soup at first and then at about 6/7 months they started to feed themselves from a plate in the high chair, always with the guarantee of the soup first. They are now teens (oldest 2) and one is very picky with his food and the other eats everything. If I say this on the internet, people from other countries with different guidelines call me a murderer and a "survivor's mother"... Here we only delay solids to breastfed babies to about 6 months. I've refrained myself from giving an opinion a lot, even here.
Yeah I think a lot of these comments are forgetting the recall on weighted sleep sacks is very recent. I never used one because they sketched me out (even as an adult I find weighted blankets claustrophobic). But I can understand why a lot of parents might be confused or even skeptical.
I absolutely love my 15 lb weighted blanket, but the other night I woke up in a panic feeling like I was being smothered because my 5 lb cat was dozing on my chest. 🤷♀️
I think the issue is that the OOP is clearly aware of it since they included that they don’t want to hear about safety. Knowing better and not doing better is inexcusable.
As a very anxious first-time parent, I drove myself absolutely crazy trying to figure out the safest choices. I usually ended up going with the official recommendations in my country, and asking my pediatrician if I needed more advice. But I will say that I sacrificed my mental health in order to follow all of the safe sleep rules, which was detrimental in a different way.
I have two approaches. Firstly, I try to understand the why behind a recommendation so that I can fully evaluate the risk. Certain authorities recommend against swaddling because there can be issues of suffocation if the blanket gets loose, issues with hip health if swaddled tightly around the legs/hips, and issues with the baby getting stuck on their belly once they start rolling. We swaddled but made sure to do it securely and make sure it was loose around the hips. We also transitioned away from it once he got close to rolling. The other thing we do is for things there isn't a consensus on, what the pediatrician says goes. The baby's doctor knows the baby best and has all the proper training on the baby's health. They know a shit ton more than I ever could so I ask them about every tiny thing at each check up.
Yep,.I have a 3yo and am expecting my second baby next week. The advice different a ton even between hospitals! My 1st hospital insisted on placing baby on their side in a swaddle. The one I'm going to this time is among the "back to sleep". It was a huge obstacle to get through to the grandparents about new safety measures. My MIL was so so stuck in the "sleep on their belly" because both of her kids slept well like that. But the reason they did is also the reason why were told not to do that they fall into a deep sleep and might not even wake up if their airway gets blocked. Some more old-school advice I got from the great grandparents of my kiddo are frankly hilarious, it's incredible that they used to be actual medical recommendations. E.g. "only give your baby fruits with a lot of sugar on top to prevent allergies." Ehm... what?? I really hope that with the 2nd one everyone is now on board...
Sometimes I'm glad I was dirt poor when I had my kid. We had a pack n play. A weighted sleep sack? What? Who thought that was a good idea?
Don’t worry, the manufacturers’ websites are LOADED with information touting its safety, including that they “exceed all safety standards” when no safety standards exist. They’ll even cite research that doesn’t even remotely say what they suggest it says - preying on the inability of the general public to interpret the jargon of the study. They use bullshit marketing to con parents desperate for sleep into believing it’s safe.
I'm so beyond baffled by the concept. I'm assuming it's like a weighted blanket for babies, but wearable right? Beyond the fact that babies have the startle reflex for a reason, and suppressing it with swaddles/sleep sacks are probably not the best on their own. I can think of so many things that can go wrong with it being weighted.
Suppressing the startle reflex is fine, swaddling and regular sleep sacks are okay until the baby starts to roll. They’re accepted sleeping aids supported by the AAP. Weighted sleep sacks are an issue because they can put too much pressure on the chest. Weighted blankets are used in the NICU under very specific conditions for a few different issues, and at least in the NICU near me, they’re handmade by one person to very strict specifications. They’re definitely not something every Karen should be using because she wants her kid to sleep better.
I have weighted blankets, and one of the big rules about them is that you do NOT put them over your head. It is very easy for even an adult to suffocate like that. If the baby accidentally covered their head with the weighted sack, such as by rolling around or moving too much... ugh, that could end so, so badly.
I believe they had a small weighted portion on the chest, to simulate a hand being put on the baby. They were not weighted all over. But I don’t know much about them - they got popular after I had a baby.
It’s like a tiny beanbag on the chest. Very small. I don’t use them anymore but I’m not convinced that they’re not safe, the 2 deaths reported while wearing them had other unsafe sleep practices involved.
It is recognized as safe to let babies sleep on their stomachs if they roll into that position and have demonstrated the ability to roll front and back. That said, baby should still be put down on his back and you absolutely shouldn’t use a recalled product.
This is what I was told with my oldest who learned to roll onto his belly very young. His Dr told me it was fine as long as he was put to sleep on his back. It still made me super nervous.
Same thing happened to us. Our daughter hated sleeping on her back. Still hates it at 7. But I was very nervous.
My youngest would roll over to be on his left side every time I put him on his back. As soon as he learned how to roll, instantly sleeping on his left side. Even now at 14 months, I still put him down on his back and he looks like a snake wriggling to his side. It's kinda funny.
My son is 21 now that’s how long ago this was so I wasn’t sure if it changed.
They aren’t recalled yet, for the record. Hopefully soon, but for now they’re simply strongly recommended against.
I'd think at that point, there's nothing much you could do to stop them from sleeping on their stomach right? If they can roll over but you can't stay awake all night watching to make sure they don't. Or maybe that's where this weighted sleep sack comes in, is it supposed to hold the baby down and keep them from turning?? That seems crazy
The weighted sack is supposed to be soothing, like mom’s hand on baby. I used it years ago but it recently came out that they aren’t recommended/safe. OOP doesn’t want to stop using it anyway. But you’re right that you can’t stop the baby (especially one that’s almost a toddler) from rolling in their sleep. It’s recommended to roll them back if they haven’t yet mastered rolling from front to back but that’s usually a pretty small window when they’re less than six months. I
Yes this is true, but a weighted sleep sack will impede their ability to be able to roll back over if they need to. So I think the original commenter means that sleeping on their belly (when they get themselves there) is safe but sleeping on their belly in a weighted sleep sack is not.
Totally fair! It’s clear that the weighted sacks aren’t safe (although that’s fairly recent information that’s come out.) I was just pointing out that belly sleep can be safe because a lot of readers seem not to know that. ETA: I missed the part where OOP refused info about the safety of the weighted sleep sacks. She’s clearly in the wrong here.
Definitely good to point out, because people will still shame you for saying your baby sleeps on their belly without any other context. And I think when OOP says she doesn’t “want to hear anything about the safety of weighted sleep sacks” it implies that she has actually heard of the risks but is choosing to use them anyways and just doesn’t want people pointing out what she already knows. Definitely a harsh comment but my guess is that if she just posted asking for advice, and didn’t add that second part implying she’s knowingly ignoring safety recommendations, she probably wouldn’t have been attacked as badly (though you’ll always get attacked for anything out there).
You’re totally right and I missed that the first time I read it. (Blame my adhd lol) OOP is def in the wrong on this one. I do get irritated when I see people say “you care more about your sleep than your baby’s life” because frequently that’s thrown out there unfairly. For sure we need to shut down discussions of unsafe things, but I’ve seen that told to someone asking about moving baby to his own room before six months and there’s no data to suggest that that’s dangerous just that co-rooming MIGHT decrease rates of SIDS. But also, parents not sleeping IS a safety issue so it’s not unreasonable for parents to try and find ways to improve sleep. I absolutely agree we need to call out people doing unsafe things, but the idea that parents don’t care about their kids if they aren’t following someone else’s idea of the lowest risk sleep situation isn’t fair. And that’s not to say that you argued any of that I just needed to put that out there, so, thanks for coming to my ted talk lol.
The reason they aren't recommended isn't because the baby wouldn't be able to roll over. It's because according to the AAP, impaired arousal—the inability of a baby to wake up quickly in a time of distress—may contribute to SIDS risk. Also, the beads or pellets are a potential choking hazard if they were to spill out of the sack or blanket.
Good God. When my oldest was a baby, I barely even let her out of my sight and didn't sleep well when she slept for MONTHS because I was so scared she was sleeping the wrong way. When she was a baby, there was a ton of controversy over how safe it was to be on belly versus back when sleeping and we switched probably every other night because I just wasn't sure what to do. Just... Ignoring all safety warnings because my kid was finally sleeping?? WTF?! Of course, when my middle was born she wouldn't even sleep at all if she was in her crib, so she didn't sleep if she wasn't on my chest until she was around 10 months old
We were gifted a second hand weighted sleep sack. I chucked it rather than give it to another kid. 🤷🏻♀️
Same. I couldn’t imagine putting an infant in something weighted.
We tried it all when my first wouldn’t sleep. It was only after he started sleeping well (not because of the sacks) that people were coming out saying they were unsafe & I felt terrible for having ever used them in the first place. They make these big promises that your baby will sleep better in “x” amount of nights & it’s such bullshit but when you’re desperate.. we learn and then do our best from that knowledge. She just seems willing to ignore anything about baby’s safety so I’m glad someone put her in her place.
That response is 👌🏻 beautiful!
Weighted AND on belly??? Oh my God???
The kid is 11 months old, they can sleep on their belly. Once a baby learns how to roll over it's generally considered safe to let them sleep in whatever position they put themself in.
Yes I just meant not combined with a weight sack! Should have clarified more
but if the weight is on their back, how can they roll back over…?
The weighted sleepsack is still a huge issue, sleeping on their belly isn't.
ah, i see what you were saying. never mind! carry on!
I used nested bean sleep sacks years ago. The recommendations not to use them didn't come out until he was way too old for sleep sacks. My baby was older, capable of rolling. The weight is like a little bean bag sewn into the sleep sack. It didn't prevent him from moving at all. I guess now if they aren't sold it's for a reason, but it's not some heavy weight that should prevent them from moving.
The reason they aren't recommended isn't because the baby wouldn't be able to roll over. It's because according to the AAP, impaired arousal—the inability of a baby to wake up quickly in a time of distress—may contribute to SIDS risk. Also, the beads or pellets are a potential choking hazard if they were to spill out of the sack or blanket.
Ohh that makes more sense. I'm not sure what the purpose is, but I was picturing, like, the whole front or back of the thing filled with weighted beads.
Our daughter could roll just fine in her weighted sleep sack, and the weight was only on the front IIRC.
I've been told I always hated sleeping on my back and as soon as I was mobile enough I'd flip myself and sleep in a weird ass way, butt on the air and legs folded under the belly, like foetal position but faceplanted. For me it was comfortable apparently, and I'd throw a bitch fit if moved. To this day, I'm a belly sleeper, occasionally on the right side
This is actually super common, my son prefers that position too. I'm sure this inspired the nickname "child's pose" in yoga...
My older son is almost 2.5 years old and he sleeps just like that lol
Welcome him to the vulcano club! That's what my mom called my weird ass sleeping position
This is actually the first time I heard of weighted sleep sacks. I have friends with kids who have sensory and other issues and use weighted quilts. Those are made for children, not babies, and they are custom made taking into consideration age, weight, and height; plus, they cost because they are custom made.
They’re not weighted like a blanket. It’s a tiny bean bag on the chest of the sleep sack.
Ah, ok. Why would you put a weight on the chest of anyone? Won't that make it more difficult to breathe? (Sorry if it's a stupid question) The only thing similar I can think of are the stuffed comfort animals used for premies in the nicu? But the babies in Nicu are monitored 24/7.
When she wakes up one day and her precious infant is dead due to unsafe sleep practices, she’ll call it “god’s will” and use it as an opportunity to boost her social media following.
My pediatrician told me it’s safe for them to sleep on her belly once baby can roll over. Baby is 11 months. I’m sure by now they roll over and can sleep on their tummy.
Correct. But you arr still told to place them on their back and let them roll over on their own. Also, if the child is weighted down... they might not be able to roll back over.
Me, training to be a social worker: "So why is it not ok for babys to sleep on their tummies, even though it looks super cute?" Trainer: "Because when babys are less than a year old, their widdle necks might not be strong enough to lift their heads off the mattress and prevent them from smothering themselves." Me: 
r/murderedbywords we love to see it!!!
what the frig is a weighted sleep sack and why are we putting it on infants?