The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has issued a Safety Alert for certain baby sleeping bags because of the risk of overheating and suffocation.

The alert concerns baby sleeping bags that do not have arm holes or include a hood. They are marketed or intended to be used as bags for babies to sleep in unsupervised when in a crib or cot.

Without armholes to retain a baby in position, the child might slip into the sleeping bag which could result in overheating, suffocation and potentially death. Sleeping bags with hoods may also cover a baby’s nose and mouth and cause similar harm.

The Safety Alert has been issued following nearly 50 recalls or product safety reports for dangerous sleeping bag products in the UK since 2023.

OPSS is advising parents and carers not to buy – and to stop using – any sleeping bag products that lack armholes or which include a hood for unsupervised baby sleep. Parents and carers who have these products should contact the business that supplied them as they may be entitled to redress.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has also today issued a warning to parents and carers to be on high alert for online ads promoting baby products that claim to help with colic, reflux, sleep and soothing. The warning follows a large-scale monitoring exercise in which the regulator identified ads promoting potentially dangerous products and practices that could put babies at risk of serious harm or death.