Safety alert: Inclined sleepers among recalled products sold at T.J. Maxx + Marshalls

If you have a Fisher-Price Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yard, you should stop using the inclined sleeper accessory as it is being recalled.

We first reported this news on June 27, 2019, but exactly 6 months later—on November 27, 2019—the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) issued a new warning: The Fisher-Price Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yard with the inclined sleeper accessory, as well as the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play and the Kids II rocking sleeper are among several products that were sold at T.J. Maxx, Marshalls and HomeGoods after they were recalled.

Motherly reached out to TJX, the company that operates these off-price stores, and a spokesperson stated TJX is committed to fixing this issue.

“At TJX, product safety is very important to us. We deeply regret that in some instances, recalled products were not properly removed from our sales floors despite the recall processes that we had in place. We are taking appropriate steps to strengthen these processes moving forward. We apologize to our customers and encourage anyone who believes they may have one of these products to participate in the recall. For additional information about the recalls and how to participate, customers can visit the Product Recall page at our retail brand websites at www.tjmaxx.com,www.marshalls.com, and www.homegoods.com, or the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission website at www.cpsc.gov.”

The recall of the Fisher-Price Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yard’s inclined sleeper accessory was a proactive recall due to fatalities with other inclined sleeper products, including the Fisher-Price Rock ‘n Play and inclined sleepers from other brands.

When the recall was announced in June Fisher-Price stated that “parents and caregivers should immediately discontinue use of the inclined sleeper accessory for this product and visit our site for further assistance.” The company stated that it was “not recalling the play yard itself or the changing station clutch accessory or carry bag—customers can continue using these accessories.”

The fact that parents have purchased the recalled accessory and other inclined sleepers at retail stores after the recalls were announced is a concern for the CPSC, which has been urging parents and caregivers to stop using all inclined sleeping products.

After several deaths and recalls the CPSC hired a specialist in infant biomechanics at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences to conduct a study. According to the CPSC, that study “examined how 10 infants move and use their muscles on flat, inclined surfaces, and in selected inclined sleep products, and whether such product designs directly impact safety or present a risk factor that could contribute to the suffocation of an infant.”

The study concluded that the inclined sleep products that were tested were not safe for sleep, and the expert behind the study says the kind of testing she did (after millions of inclined sleepers were sold) should be done before products go to market.

Had it been done, those recalled products may never have been at TJX stores in the first place.

[A version of this post was first published June 27, 2019. It has been updated.]