Urgent Safety Alert issued for baby self-feeding products

The Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) has issued an Urgent Safety Alert for baby self-feeding products and is urging the public to stop using them immediately and dispose of them safely.

Businesses selling these products must immediately remove them from the market as they cannot comply with the safety requirements under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.

Baby self-feeding products are designed to enable babies to bottle feed with little to no assistance from a caregiver. This creates a risk of serious harm or death from:

• Choking on the feed
• Aspiration pneumonia (liquid in the lungs) 

Using self-feeding products is also inconsistent with NHS guidance in relation to safe bottle feeding.

Ashley Martin, public health advisor at the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents said: "In the case of the self-feeding products, our advice is simple: do NOT use them under any circumstances. No young baby should ever be left unsupervised in most circumstances, let alone when it is feeding, so the introduction of self-feeding devices into the market is a massive cause for concern and they should be disposed of safely."

Consumers, local authority trading standards services and businesses are asked to take specific action to cease use or remove these products from the market as advised below.

Action

The OPSS has identified that this category of products will always be dangerous due to their design and intended use and can never be made safe.

Consumers

Consumers should immediately stop using these products and dispose of them safely.

Businesses

Must immediately remove these products from the market as they cannot comply with the safety requirements under the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.

Must comply with their obligations under product safety law.

Local Authority Trading Standards

Should identify and take appropriate action against businesses that sell baby self-feeding products as they do not comply with the safety requirements set down in the General Product Safety Regulations 2005.