Some Ingenuity and Halo Bassinets Can Tilt Dangerously and Pose Risks to Infants

According to safe infant sleep guidance from the American Academy of Pediatrics, babies should sleep on their back on a firm, flat surface. Every year in the U.S., around 3,500 babies die suddenly in their sleep, and many of those deaths are thought to be due in part to unsafe sleep environments. 

Many baby products have been recalled in the past for proving to be unsafe for sleep—for instance, because they pose a risk of suffocation for being too soft and squishy or because they place babies’ head and neck in an inclined position that could hinder airflow. 

The problem with these two bassinets is in yet a different category of danger. According to online reviews and incident reports from parents and caregivers, the bassinets make it difficult for babies to not roll over while they sleep. Once they’ve rolled onto their side against a wall or onto their stomach, they can then get trapped in a potentially unsafe sleeping position.

In the past four years, the Ingenuity Dream & Grow Bedside Bassinet has earned over 100 poor evaluations that mention this issue specifically, on the manufacturer’s site and other sites where it’s sold, including Amazon and Target. 

On its product page on Target.com, roughly a quarter of the reviews have just one star. They have headings like “Dangerous” and “Not safe!” and “Tilted, Crooked. Do not buy!”

“My baby is less than 2 months old and weighs less than 10 pounds,” wrote Taylor from Philadelphia in a review on the manufacturer’s website two years ago. “The mattress/board has no support and therefore has bowed in the middle. The uneven mattress causes my baby to roll to one side. I often find her pushed all the way over pressed up against the sides. Thank god they’re mesh or else she’d suffocate.”

But several reviewers pointed out that the mesh walls are not a guarantee of safety, because the nonmesh fabric under the mattress can also become exposed, potentially increasing the suffocation risk if babies’ face ends up in that spot. 

“On two occasions my 6-week old baby rolled to one side and was stuck with her face against fabric,” wrote a customer named Amanda in a review on Target.com two years ago. “It was terrifying to think what could have happened had I not woken up to check on her. I can’t believe with all the close call comments this thing is still being sold.”

In addition to online reviews, concerned consumers have also submitted incident reports to the CPSC’s SaferProducts.gov database. At least two deaths associated with the Ingenuity Dream & Grow were reported there, as well as at least seven close calls that didn’t involve an injury.

“I placed my baby in it according to directions, she was only 2 weeks old at the time,” wrote a parent in one incident report in September 2019. “I woke up a few hours later to her face-down in the side corner of the bassinet. She does not have the ability to roll yet (she’s still way too young AND a preemie!), so it’s not possible that she rolled there on her own. I believe the bassinet bottom tilted and she shifted her weight and that caused her to roll to the side, with her face shoved into the corner. I believe we’re lucky that she didn’t suffocate.” The parent also included a photo, with a teddy bear demonstrating the position that the baby was found in.

Kids2, the manufacturer of the Ingenuity bassinet, did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

The second bassinet CR tested, the Halo BassiNest Flex Portable Bassinet, seems to pose similar risks. Its base frame has support on only one side, and the side without the support tends to slope downward. 

None of the incidents that consumers reported to the CPSC about the Halo bassinet seemed to involve injuries. But the product has received over 100 bad reviews mentioning this problem, on the manufacturer’s site, and online on Amazon, Best Buy, Target, and Walmart.

“[My baby is] only one month old and weighs less than 10 pounds and the last two nights I’ve found her with her entire face pressed up against the mesh and with her neck turned down towards the mattress,” wrote a customer named Katie in a review on the Halo website. “I literally didn’t sleep at all last night panicked that she would end up with her face pressed in between the mattress and mesh. So much for a good night’s sleep with this bassinet!”

“The second you put a newborn down they roll to the front and within 3 hours their face is pressed against the mesh,” wrote R.S. in another review on the Halo website. “Our 4-day-old has already rolled onto his stomach in this bassinet.” 

Even if the sides of the bassinet are made of mesh and thus breathable, the fact that the product is marketed to be used at the parent’s bedside is problematic, as a reviewer named Layne wrote on the product page on Amazon: “The outside wall of the bassinet is right up against our bed and blankets, so this issue could literally cause baby to suffocate.”

The incident reports submitted to the CPSC are also harrowing, and one from June 2022 describes a risk beyond suffocation. The parent of a 2-month-old who’d rolled to the side of a tilting bassinet said, “It was also possible that they could have suffered from a fall since their weight was pressed against sidewall mesh fabric that likely is not intended to support the entire weight of a baby.”

Another incident report, submitted to the CPSC by the parent of a 7-week-old girl in October 2023, described how the baby was not able to lie flat on her back on the bassinet’s uneven surface, and included a photo of what this looked like:

In April 2023, the CPSC sent a letter to the safety-standards group for bassinets, urging them to require bassinets to be totally flat, a 0 degree incline (but allowing room for error for an incline of just 1 degree). According to the letter, the group had previously proposed a maximum tilt angle of 7 degrees, which made the CPSC staff “concerned.”

The recipients of that letter, Scott Lewis, who leads the bassinets and cradles subcommittee at ASTM, and Jennifer King, who leads the task group on bassinet elevated surfaces, did not respond to CR’s request for comment.

CR’s safety experts urge the CPSC to conduct its own investigations and push to recall both the Ingenuity Dream & Grow and Halo BassiNest Flex bassinets. They also believe these companies should be doing more to protect consumers.

“A safe sleep environment for babies is nonnegotiable,” says Oriene Shin, policy counsel for Consumer Reports. “It’s terrifying to think that these bassinets have been putting babies at risk for years with little action. Companies have a responsibility to address serious design issues as soon as they are reported—before it’s too late.”

Anyone who has an experience with an unsafe product can report it to the CPSC through SaferProducts.gov.