The children's products giant Fisher-Price announced on Thursday it was recalling more than 2 million of its infant Snuga Swings due to a suffocation hazard after five children were reported dead from sleeping in the device.
From 2012 to 2022, five infants between 1 and 3 months old were reported dead when the rocking chair was used for sleep, usually when the babies were unrestrained, and additional bedding was added to the seat.
Parents were encouraged to remove the headrest and the body support insert from the seat pad if they continued to use the product. The company was offering a $25 refund to consumers. The product retailed for about $160 until January of this year. No explanation was provided regarding how the company arrived at this $25 refund.
About 2.1 million swings were sold in the United States, with an additional 99,500 units sold in Canada and Mexico.
This is not the first time Fisher-Price has had to recall one of its products following the death of children.
In 2019, the company recalled its once-popular Rock 'n Play sleepers, which has led to some 100 infant deaths.
In that instance, an investigation by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform found that Fisher-Price allegedly hadn’t adequately vetted the sleeper for safety before putting it on the market in 2009 and then batted away criticism of the Rock 'n Play for a decade before recalling it in 2019 after more than 50 infants had already lost their lives.
The New York-based children's company faces similar criticisms for their Snuga Swings recall.
Richard Trumka Jr., a U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission commissioner, said the current recall's language still puts babies at risk.
“First, Fisher-Price fails to recall the entire product, instead recalling only a portion of it. Even after a consumer follows through with the recall ‘remedy,’ the product remains unsafe for infant sleep, yet Fisher-Price encourages ‘continuing to use the swing,’” Trumka said of the company’s call to have consumers remove portions of the device before continued use.
“Second, along with choosing to recall only a portion of the product, Fisher-Price is offering consumers only a small portion of the product’s cost—$25, when consumers originally spent around $160 for the Snuga Swings,” Trumka continued. “I fear that this dangerous approach will keep babies at risk of death just to save Fisher-Price money—a horrible example of putting profit over people.”
Trumka advised parents to cash in on the $25 refund and throw the chair away because it remained unsafe for sleep.
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