A baby was 22 days old, his body was cold and still when his mother found him. Another, a fussy 2-month-old, was discovered by his exhausted parents that he was unresponsive hours after they put him to bed late at night. A third suffocated as he lay next to his twin brother in their shared bassinet.
Before they died, all of the babies had been placed to sleep on nursing pillows, and their deaths were neither isolated nor inevitable, an NBC News investigation has found.
At least 162 babies under the age of one have died in incidents involving nursing pillows since 2007, according to a first-of-its-kind analysis based on hundreds of public records and internal federal data. Some of the babies slumped back on their pillows or arched backwards, constricting their airways. Others turned their faces toward the luxurious surface, suffocating as their parents slept a few feet away.
In some cases, the cause of death was unclear, but the babies were found on or with nursing pillows, sometimes while sleeping with their parents, or next to soft bedding that also poses a suffocation risk. At least three incidents involved mothers who fell asleep while feeding their baby with a nursing pillow and woke up to find they couldn’t wake their child.
“You think, ‘Well, we couldn’t buy things that are potentially unsafe for our babies.’ But we can,” said Dr. Elizabeth Murray of Golisano Children’s Hospital in Rochester, N.Y., who sees babies nearly every year. who have died after being placed to sleep on nursing pillows.
Nursing pillows have become a must-have for many new parents, with 1.34 million sold per year in the US, according to industry estimates. Horseshoe-shaped cushions, which come in a variety of colorful prints, are marketed as essential for the first few months of life, when babies need frequent feedings. The manufacturers say they are safe when used as intended: to help caregivers cradle their babies while breastfeeding or bottle-feeding.
But babies left unattended on the cushions or allowed to sleep on them, contrary to product warning labels, can stop breathing within minutes.
NBC News’ death count is based on a variety of records, including consumer and local official reports reviewed by federal authorities; reports from law enforcement and medical examiners; and federal data obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request.
The count includes deaths caused by suffocation or restricted airways in incidents involving nursing pillows. In some cases, other causes were listed, such as pneumonia, or the cause of death was undetermined, unexplained, or not listed, but a nursing pillow was listed as a potential factor. In most cases, the brand of the nursing pillow was not specified.
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