Skip to main content

Commissioner Trumka: Safety Changes for Nursing Pillows Will Save Babies’ Lives

Commissioner Trumka: Safety Changes for Nursing Pillows Will Save Babies’ Lives

September 18, 2024

Preventing infants from dying in unsafe consumer products is my top priority as a Commissioner. Today, the Agency honored its duty by adopting a strong rule to protect babies from the suffocation risks posed by poorly designed nursing pillows. And our action today protects parents’ right to choose among many safe options for feeding their babies. 

At least 154 infants died in a nursing pillow between 2010 and 2022.[1] Our expert staff, after analyzing the circumstances of those tragic deaths, put forward a series of tests to ensure that nursing pillows will be safe. Sleep deaths are, by far, the most common way that infants have died in nursing pillows.[2] So, CPSC’s final rule includes tests to ensure that nursing pillows with plush surfaces won’t conform to an infant’s face and suffocate a sleeping child. The rule also includes tests to ensure a nursing pillow will safely contain an infant when used for its intended purpose of nursing a baby and to reduce the likelihood that the pillows will be used for sleep. This rule is a commonsense measure to stop preventable infant sleep deaths. 

In the near future, the Commission will consider solutions to prevent infant sleep deaths in other products like infant support cushions and rockers. For those categories, my goal is the same. I look forward to the day when baby products will be safe for babies. I look forward to a day when caregivers won’t have to exhaustively research how many babies have died in the products they hope to purchase, and won’t have to worry day and night that they’ve missed something or that the information available is incomplete. It’s our job to make that a reality. 

 

Yours in Safety,

Commissioner Richard L. Trumka Jr. 

*The views expressed in this statement are solely the views of Commissioner Trumka and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Commission.
 

[1] Notice of Proposed Rulemaking: Safety Standard for Nursing Pillows, at page OS-14 (available at: https://www.cpsc.gov/s3fs-public/Notice-of-Proposed-Rulemaking-Safety-Standard-for-Nursing-Pillows.pdf?VersionId=kq4qN.5uTjM6VuaN2015ky8bIKGYii3P (Aug. 2023). 

[2] Id. at OS-7.

Report an unsafe product