Amazon’s failure to provide safe baby products is not a new category: a statement from Dawn Barry, founder of Safe Infant Sleep, and Tara Williams, CEO of Dreamland Baby

An Amazon spokesperson said it told sellers in early April that they would no longer be able to offer weighted infant sleep products for sale, a policy change the company said it made “with customer safety in mind.”

“It is imperative that products specifically designed for infants undergo rigorous safety testing and meet the most stringent standards prior to being made available in the market,” Michelle Barry, founder of the nonprofit Safe Infant Sleep, said in a statement.

Dreamland Baby’s marketing claim that its products “exceeded” all standards was not true because there is no standard for weighted infant sleepwear, according to Blumenthal.

Tara Williams, founder and CEO of Dreamland Baby, said that she believes her company’s products are safe and that critics of weighted infant sleepwear lack any evidence proving otherwise.

Williams said that the United States government was against Dreamland Baby and Nested Bean. This is not a new category. It’s been out for a long time. There’s over 3.5 million [products] sold with no pattern of hazard.”

Manasi Gangan, founder and president of Nested Bean, said her company is offering is a “safe, effective sleep tool” that has helped millions of babies.

She said that any claims to the contrary are false. “We look forward to getting back to what we’re good at: helping families get a great night’s rest.”

Consumer complaints about weighted products for infants, as revealed by a Babylist study in 2019, when the death of a baby was unimaginable

There has been no research into the safety of weighted infant sleep products. A study published in the journal Advances in Neonatal Care in 2020 reported “no adverse events” in babies who slept under a weighted blanket, even though their heart rates slowed and the sessions lasted only 30 minutes at most.

In a safety study conducted on behalf of Nested Bean, researchers found that a 1-ounce weight applied to an infant’s chest did “not present clear indications for or against” potential breathing hazards, but that 3- and 9.5-ounce weights “may increase potential hazard and subsequent risk” due to lower breathing rates and faster pulses.

Gangan said the coroner’s report in one death cites “a tragic combination of multiple proven-unsafe sleep practices. It did not state a weighted product or a Nested Bean product.

“The death of a child is an unimaginable tragedy, yet it does not give public officials license to spread unsupported claims, particularly when they endanger a small, minority female-owned business,” Gangan said.

Natalie Gordon, founder and CEO of Babylist, said in a statement that the company values “doing what is best for growing families and keeping a pulse on the newest industry guidance, which is why we have stopped selling these products.”

“I believe that there is sufficient evidence of potential harm to warrant an investigation. That is the minimum that this federal agency should do,” he told NPR. Referring to past marketing claims by the companies, he added, “other agencies should join in demanding that these companies tell the truth.”

Williams said that the language referred to the standards of the commission. She added that although Dreamland Baby’s staff didn’t believe the claim was misleading, the company removed it so as not to confuse customers.

We want to make it perfectly clear: this is the product we’re trying to work with. This is what it does. Here are your expected results,” she said.

Gangan said that representatives from Nested Bean shared the research behind their marketing claims with Blumenthal’s staff and then changed some of the claims to make them more specific.

Do We Know What We Know About Women-Owned Small Business? A Comment on M. J. Gangan (D-Minnesota)

“If we call for a federal investigation of two woman-owned small businesses, we may uncover nothing more than what is already publicly known and shared, only harming our ability to provide safe sleep and burdening our resources,” Gangan said.