Weighted infant sleepwear is meant to help babies rest better. Critics say it's risky
From pacifiers to white noise machines, there is a bevy of products marketed toward notoriously tired new parents that claim to calm babies and help them sleep better.
Among some of the newer offerings are weighted infant sleepwear such as swaddles and sleep sacks that — like weighted blankets for adults — are touted as a way to reduce anxiety and have a soothing effect on the wearer.
But a growing number of doctors and safe sleep advocates are warning about the potential dangers of weighted sleepwear for infants. Babies' bodies are still developing, critics say, and the added heft of weighted clothing could make it harder for infants to breathe, pump blood and move around.
"We do recommend swaddling. We do recommend pacifiers. We recommend rocking and shushing," Dr. Rachel Moon, a pediatrician at the University of Virginia, told NPR. "There are a lot of things that you can do, but please don't use a weighted blanket or swaddle."
Moon is chair of the American Academy of Pediatrics' task force on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), which last year said weighted swaddles are "not safe" and recommended against using them and other weighted infant sleep products.
Though some U.S. safety standards for
