They were sold on an uber-recognized fashion site among other outlets, but the manufacturer "has not agreed to recall these sling carriers or offer a remedy to consumers."
A Popular Baby Carrier Just Received a Government Safety Warning
Published on Jan. 29, 2025
As a parent, you always want to snuggle your baby close, making baby-wearing a great solution for families on the go—and you trust that the product you paid for will keep baby super-secure. Unfortunately, that’s not always the case: In a national report on injuries related to nursery products, the the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) found that roughly 8,000 children are treated in emergency rooms annually due to baby carriers.
Now, a CPSC safety warning issued this week highlights the importance of putting safety first in your selection.
The CPSC reported on January 23 that 750 Babypark brand sling carriers manufactured in China and sold on SHEIN and on other websites between March and November 2024 “lack structural integrity and can fail to retain infants in the carriers, posing a fall hazard in violation of federal safety requirements. The sling carriers also do not have required warnings and instructions.”
Babypark slings were sold in a variety of printed patterns by other third-party sellers, the notice says. You can identify the affected products using the following information, which is printed on the labels:
- The brand name “Babypark”
- Codes GB/T 40227-2021 and GB31701-2015
Shenzhen Huideming Electronics, the firm implicated in the recall, “has not agreed to recall these sling carriers or offer a remedy to consumers,” reports the CPSC. The government firm advises parents should immediately throw away their Babypark sling carrier, taking care to ensure that no one else uses the product.
Further, if you choose to replace it with another baby-wearing item, put your baby’s safety first by choosing a carrier that meets compliance standards that all soft infant and toddler carriers must meet. These include (from the CPSC’s site):
- Fastener strength and strap retention: Intended to ensure that fasteners do not break or disengage and straps do not slip through fasteners by any significant amount while the child is being transported in the carrier.
- Dynamic and static load testing on seating area: Intended to ensure that the child remains fully supported while being transported in the carrier.
- Occupant retention: Intended to prevent falls by setting requirements for bounded and unbounded leg openings.
Warnings: Intended to alert the caregiver to infant fall and suffocation hazards and promote safe use of soft infant and toddler carriers. - Flammability: Intended to ensure the product meets the flammability requirements of 16 C.F.R. part 1610
Additional rules address the materials used to make soft infant or toddler carriers. For example, the items cannot contain greater than acceptable levels of lead or phthalates, and must be tested by a CPSC-accepted, third party laboratory for compliance.
“The standard seeks to minimize the risk of deaths and injuries associated with the use of soft infant and toddler carriers, including those related to caregiver falls, infant falls from carriers, or structural and design problems of carriers,” the CPSC writes.
Children under the age of one are most vulnerable to baby-wearing injuries, with infants ages 0 to 5 months at the greatest risk, a 2021 study pointed out. Those researchers reviewed 14,024 cases of baby-wearing injuries reported to the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System between 2011 and 2020. They found 19.3% of the injured infants required hospitalization, and 83.7% of these children injured their heads. Roughly 30% of the baby-wearing injuries reviewed in the study were associated with sling carriers.
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