CPSC Approves New Safety Standard for Nursing Pillows

On September 18, 2024, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) unanimously approved a new mandatory standard for nursing pillows designed to address risks presented by suffocation, entrapment, and fall hazards associated with these products. All nursing pillows manufactured for sale will need to meet the new requirements 180 days after their publication in the Federal Register.

Nursing pillows are usually shaped like a C and worn around the waist of the nursing parent. Nursing pillows are intended to support infants during breast or bottle feeding but are sometimes used to support babies for sleeping or lounging. According to CPSC, the use of nursing pillows for sleeping or lounging led to over 150 infant deaths between 2010 and 2022.

This new mandatory safety standard imposes a number of requirements, including testing, design, and labeling requirements. Under the new rules, nursing pillows with plush surfaces must be tested to ensure they won’t conform to an infant’s face or suffocate a sleeping child. They also prohibit nursing pillows from including any kind of “infant restraint system,” which could entangle a baby. In addition, the regulations require a prominent warning label on all nursing pillows warning consumers of the risk of injury if the product is not used properly. Finally, the rules require new tests to ensure a nursing pillow will safely contain an infant when used for its intended purpose of nursing a baby and to reduce the likelihood that the pillows will be used for sleep.

According to CPSC Chair Alex Hoehn-Saric, “Products made for infants should be as safe as possible for use by infants. We recognize that nursing pillows can be useful for caregivers when they breast or bottle feed infants. But our data also tell us that these same pillows are hazardous to babies if they are used as loungers; if they are placed in cribs or beds; or if babies fall asleep in them.”

CPSC Commissioner Mary Boyle echoed Chair Hoehn-Saric’s statements, asserting, “On October 7, 2020, CPSC warned consumers that nursing pillows are not safe for sleep. That was a critical message for consumers then and it remains critical today. Nothing in the rule changes that message. What has changed are the legal requirements these products must now meet, including pillow dimensions, firmness standards, and conspicuous warning labels making clear that babies have died using nursing pillows for sleep or lounging.”

CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka also noted that CPSC is considering “solutions to prevent infant sleep deaths in other products like infant support cushions and rockers.” Commissioner Trumka’s statement underscores CPSC’s recent series of actions to mandate safety standards for durable infant and toddler products. For example, CPSC is currently seeking to mandate existing voluntary safety standards for infant and infant/toddler rockers, which include a number of safety standards and performance tests.

CPSC’s new safety standard go into effect 180 days after publication in the Federal Register. Companies manufacturing nursing pillows, support cushions, and other durable baby products need to evaluate their products to ensure they comply with these new requirements.