New Safety Guidelines Recommended for Nursing Pillows After Infant Deaths

Nursing Pillow Recommendations from the CPSC

In a statement to Parents, the CPSC explained its concerns with nursing pillows, especially when it comes to infant deaths.

“Nearly all of those deaths involved the use of the pillow for sleep. Our goal is to make nursing pillows safer; and preserve their functionality while eliminating a known hazard.  Nursing pillows can be incredibly useful for parents and caregivers to assist in baby feeding.  But the reality is, some nursing pillows are designed not just for nursing, but to allow for infant lounging and sleeping, which we know is unsafe.  Nursing pillows should be designed and used for infant feeding—period.  And babies should only be put to sleep on a firm, flat surface—like a crib or bassinet—without pillows or other products that could suffocate the infant. The priority of CPSC is to address the safety issues of these—and all—products, particularly when they put at risk the most vulnerable among us, our children.”

Given that, the CPSC is requesting the first federal safety requirements for nursing pillows. Among the proposed new rules:1

• Require nursing pillows "to be sufficiently firm that the product is unlikely to conform to an infant’s face and occlude its airways."
• Require nursing pillows to have wider openings that fit the adult who is using them rather than the infant. That would reduce the risk of a baby's head becoming stuck in the pillow's opening or be restrictive to the infant's head.
• Requires new labeling to warn parents of the suffocation risks and fall hazards that can be associated with nursing pillows.
• No straps on nursing pillows to secure infants. They say the straps may give parents a false sense that it's safe to leave their babies alone in the products.

The Dangers of Nursing Pillows

Harvey Karp, MD, FAAP, a pediatrician and founder of Happiest Baby explains that when you use a nursing pillow as it’s intended for breastfeeding, not sleep or lounging, and only use it when the nursing parent is awake, nursing pillows can be a safe and helpful tool for breastfeeding.