Parents warned to stop using infant sleep positioner

WASHINGTON - The government is warning parents and caregivers to stop using infant sleep positioners - those soft fabric products that parents put in the crib to keep babies safely sleeping on their backs.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission and the Food and Drug Administration said Wednesday they know of 12 infants in the last 13 years who died when they suffocated in a positioner or became trapped and suffocated between the positioner and the side of a crib.

The infants were between the ages of one month and four months.

Most of the babies suffocated after rolling from a side to stomach position.

CPSC has also received dozens of reports of infants who were placed on their backs or sides in sleep positioners and later found in potentially dangerous position in or next to the sleep positioners.