Highlights
- In Australia, there hasn't been any rigorous testing and there are no safety standards about the products like weighted baby blankets or baby sleepsacks/ baby sleeping bags
- There have been some deaths recorded in Canada and US with young children and weighted baby blankets/ sleeping bags
- It's potentially very dangerous because it can restrict a baby's breathing because they also can't communicate with adults
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It was considered an answered prayer for Sydney-based nurse Blessa De Maria and their husband Joe to have a child after trying for a couple of years.
As a first-time mum, Blessa admits she bought plenty of gadgets and products to help lessen her anxiety in making sure their son will be safe.
"As a first-time mum have high levels of anxiety about how to take care of my son, so I bought many gadgets to lessen my anxiousness, I don't want him to be affected. As a nurse, every day I checked him from head to toe".
As advised by many she bought baby sleeping bags instead of the blanket as it was safer to use.
Blessa De Maria admits as a first-time mum, she bought plenty of gadgets and products to lessen her anxiety in making sure her son is safe and have a good rest. Source: Blessa De Maria
" All I knew baby sleeping bag is safer than a blanket and based on my experience my son has long hours of sleep maybe because he felt someone is cuddling with the use of the sleeping bag."
But an incident happened that put her son's life at risk.
" I bought1.5 TOG and 2.5 TOG baby sleeping bag and since it is winter time I use the 2.5 TOG which is more thicker. But I noticed in the middle of the night, that my son was unsettled.
It's a good thing I co-sleep him that time to breastfeed, his body got overheated because of the sleeping bag. I was so scared and I never used it again."
Weighted sleepsacks, an everyday product promising to calm and settle newborns to sleep, are beginning to pop up in ads on social media.
The concept is similar to a weighted blanket used for adults. But when applied to small babies, the risks can be potentially life-threatening.
Ahead of Red Nose Day [August 12], the charity's chief executive Keren Ludski is flagging the dangers associated with weighted blankets for babies.
"We've found that there has been more products on the market both online and seen across social media that are advertising weighted blankets
and weighted sleep sacks for babies and that's been really concerning for us because we know for babies they have smaller, far more easily compressed airways. So the thought of a weight going on to the front of a baby is really alarming"
Ms Ludski says they've seen an influx of calls and queries about the advertisements from health professionals, childcare educators, maternal and child health nurses, and private business owners.
"And then we have your everyday parent who is seeing on social, 'wow there's this new product; is this product going to help my baby sleep more soundly',
and we know how precious sleep is. And that's why it's kind of concerning because that's what it's actually preying on, the need for parents and carers to get that respite when baby is asleep."
"After what happened and learning all these things, I am more careful", says young mum Blessa.
Blessa with husband Joe and baby Gab De Maria Source: Blessa De Maria
Professor Alicia Spittle is the associate dean of research within the faculty of Medicine, Dentistry, and Health Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
She says for an adult or older child, the idea of a weighted blanket is that it provides sensory input and comfort, similar to a hug.
But for a baby, there are other ways to provide this sense of security outside of a weighted blanket - by putting them into a regular sleeping bag or by swaddling them for example.
"Weighted blankets have become more popular in use with children who might have Attention Deficit Hyper Activity Disorder (ADHD) or even for adults to help comfort them or give them a sense of security.
For a baby, however, putting a weighted blanket on them when they actually need to communicate with us and tell us that they've had enough or to move around, they don't have the strength to resist necessarily that weighted blanket.
It's potentially very dangerous because it can restrict a baby's breathing because they also can't communicate with us to say they've had enough of that blanket it could be really dangerous."
In a statement, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission [ACCC] said:
"The ACCC is committed to providing reliable and up-to-date information to parents and carers on best practices to keep baby safe and unsafe products. A new online resource for parents and carers about how they can protect their baby when playing, sleeping, soothing, bathing and changing, will be launched by the ACCC soon.
The safest way to sleep a baby is on a flat, firm surface. Avoid bedding such as pillows, bumpers and blankets in a sleep environment."
Ms Ludski says Red Nose also has a resource on their website that addresses the risks associated with these weighted blankets and sleepsacks.
And they're working on translating their services into other languages.
"Some of our resources are translated into multiple languages. It's actually a project that Red Nose is working on at the moment, looking at all of our resources and getting them translated."
While there have been no deaths recorded from weighted blankets in Australia, there have been instances in the United States and Canada.
Red Nose chief executive Karen Ludski says she doesn't want action to be taken when it's already too late, that's why important for authorities to be proactive, rather than reactive.
"We know that there have been some deaths overseas with young children and weighted blankets. But there hasn't been any rigorous testing in Australia, there are no safety standards around it and that will always when we look at how vulnerable babies are in sleep anyway, you wouldn't want to be putting any product near a baby that hasn't been tested."
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