The baby products have been recalled because of a “risk of serious harm”
Families and businesses across the UK have been warned to cease using and selling certain baby products “immediately” following an urgent safety alert.
The Chartered Trading Standards Institute released the notice on Friday, February 13, from the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) concerning items commonly referred to as baby self-feeding pillows, or prop feeders.
These items are intended to allow infants to be bottle-fed without parental assistance or supervision. Yet the CTSI has warned that such products could expose babies to a “risk of serious harm” or potentially fatal consequences.
Dangers associated with baby self-feeding pillows include choking during feeding and aspiration pneumonia.
As reports the Express, the CTSI wrote: “Baby self-feeding pillow products are designed to enable a baby to be positioned on its back and attached to a bottle so that it may self-feed without the assistance of a caregiver holding the bottle and controlling the feed.
“This is inconsistent with NHS guidance in relation to safe bottle feeding: https://www.nhs.uk/baby/breastfeeding-and-bottle-feeding/bottle-feeding/advice/.
“The General Product Safety Regulations 2005 (GPSR) require all products to be safe in their normal or reasonably foreseeable usage. A baby, which is the intended user of the product, does not have the dexterity or cognitive ability to control the flow of bottle feed, or to know when to stop feeding, or to take action if it gags or chokes or to otherwise signal or raise alarm if something is going wrong.
“Crucial to this, gagging is characterised by noise and coughing, whereas choking is characterised by silence because of the blockage to the airway. The most common reason for babies to choke on feed is because the liquid is being dispensed faster than it can swallow.
“The harm in relation to aspiration pneumonia follows a similar sequence of events, but a choking event does not occur. However, the baby does breathe in liquid which goes on to cause an infection resulting in pneumonia.
“The risks from choking and aspiration pneumonia are entirely related to the design and intended use of the product – these risks cannot be mitigated by instructions.”
Customers who have purchased these products are being urged to cease using them immediately and dispose of them safely. The CTSI has also issued guidance for businesses and local authority trading standards.
For businesses, the CTSI said: “Must immediately remove these products from the market as they cannot comply with the safety requirements under the General Product Safety Regulations, 2005. Must comply with their obligations under product safety law.”
Local authority trading standards organisations are advised to “identify and take appropriate action against businesses that sell baby self-feeding pillows as they do not comply with the safety requirements set down in the General Product Safety Regulations, 2005”.
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