Baby Sleep Product Recalls: Cribs, Bassinets and Sleepers

Cribs, bassinets, play yards and bedside sleepers must meet federal safety standards, and any other product sold for infant sleep must meet the bassinet standard with a surface no steeper than 10 degrees. Inclined sleepers and crib bumpers have been banned since November 12, 2022. Check a sleep product against cpsc.gov/Recalls, and keep only a fitted sheet in it.

Sleep products get the strictest rules in baby gear because babies spend so many hours in them unwatched.

Which sleep products have federal rules?

The infant sleep product rule closes a gap. CPSC says that if a product’s name implies it is for infant sleep, using words like “bed,” “bassinet” or “crib,” and it is not covered by one of the other standards, it falls under part 1236.

What does CPSC say to use for sleep?

CPSC’s safe sleep “dos and don’ts” come down to a few rules:

• Use cribs, bassinets, play yards and bedside sleepers that meet federal requirements.
• “Bare is Best”: nothing but a fitted sheet in the sleep space.
• Always place the baby on their back.
• Move a baby who falls asleep elsewhere to their crib, bassinet, play yard or bedside sleeper.
• No pillows, blankets, weighted blankets or weighted swaddles.

CPSC explains why: many young babies “cannot lift their heads to pull away from soft objects,” and “a seated or semi-reclined position can cause your baby’s head to tip forward and their airway to be blocked.” Safe sleep basics covers the full guidance, including NIH’s Safe to Sleep campaign.

How often are sleep products recalled?

The method is on recalls by the numbers.

Loungers and add-on mattresses

Two kinds of product account for much of the recent rise. The first is the infant lounger. The largest lounger recall in our count is The Boppy Company’s September 23, 2021 recall of about 3.3 million Boppy Original Newborn Loungers, Boppy Preferred Newborn Loungers and Pottery Barn Kids Boppy Newborn Loungers. Its hazard statement reads: “Infants can suffocate if they roll, move, or are placed on the lounger in a position that obstructs breathing, or roll off the lounger onto an external surface, such as an adult pillow or soft bedding that obstructs breathing.” The remedy was a refund. From 2023 through 2025, a long run of further lounger recalls named suffocation, fall and entrapment hazards and said the products violated federal rules.

The second is the extra mattress sold separately for a play yard or crib. We counted 13 crib and play yard mattress recalls from 2016 to 2025, 12 of them from 2021 on. CPSC’s March 28, 2024 notice for Forias Pack and Play mattresses is typical: the mattress “violates multiple provisions of the Safety Standard for Crib Mattresses, including the thickness test,” and “poses a suffocation hazard to infants.” An add-on mattress needs its own recall check, separate from the play yard or crib it goes in, and the notices in this group were nearly all refund-only.

Old cribs and hand-me-downs

CPSC says the 2011 crib standards apply retroactively to new and used cribs, and that cribs made or sold before June 28, 2011 are “very likely noncompliant, unsafe, and illegal to sell,” with wider gaps between slats and “dangerous drop-side mechanisms.” A hand-me-down crib needs its date label checked before anything else. Crib recalls explains how.

CPSC also lists infant sleep products and baby loungers first among the recalled products it most often finds being resold online.

The check itself is the same for every sleep product. Find the label with the maker, model number and date of manufacture, which federal rules require on cribs, bassinets, play yards, bedside sleepers and crib mattresses alike. Search the brand and product type at cpsc.gov/Recalls, open every notice that could match, and compare the numbers. If the product is not covered by any of the sleep standards in the table above, or is marketed for sleep at an angle, do not use it for sleep at all.

Sleep product guides

Read crib recalls for the 2011 standards and recent crib notices, bassinet recalls for bassinets, cradles and travel bassinets, the inclined sleeper ban for the Rock ’n Play and similar products, and safe sleep basics for how to set up the sleep space. To check any of them, see how to check a baby product for a recall.