The Consumer Safety Product Commission (CSPC) has filed a lawsuit against Baby Matters, LLC, of Berwyn, PA, the manufacturers of the Nap Nanny and Nap Nanny Chill, after five infant deaths were linked to the product’s use.

On Wednesday, Dec. 5, the CSPC filed its complaint to force Baby Matters to pull Nap Nanny from the shelves and properly notify its customer base of ongoing safety issues.  The CSPC received more than 70 product safety complaints from parents, and Baby Matters has refused to issue a recall or discontinue the product for five months.

“We had to take action because of the number of incidences, and that is why we have filed this complaint against the company. They would not agree to a voluntary recall,” said Alex Flip, a spokesperson for the CSPC, in an interview with ABC.

The CSPC’s complaint specifically alleges that, “The Nap Nanny Generation One and Two, and Chill model infant recliners contain defects in the design, warnings and instructions, which pose a substantial risk of injury and death to infants,” according to the commission’s website.

The Nap Nanny is a foam infant recliner with a three-point harness designed to increase the infant’s comfort, promoting sleep.  Between the first generation, second generation, and Chill model, Nap Nanny has sold more than 165,000 infant recliners since its release in 2009.

Nap Nanny’s founder and owner, Leslie Gudel, is a Philadelphia sportscaster who created the recliner after noticing her infant would only fall asleep in a car seat.

In a formal statement on the company’s website, Gudel says, “The loss of an infant is an unthinkable tragedy, and I am truly heartbroken for the families who have lost a child. But the fact that infants have died ‘while using’  the Nap Nanny improperly, such as when used in a crib where the child could suffocate on a crib bumper or a blanket, does not mean our product caused the child’s death or is hazardous… No infant using the Nap Nanny properly has ever suffered an injury requiring medical attention.”

In 2010 there was one infant death associated with the product, and 22 complaints were issued about infants hanging or falling over the recliners ledge, despite use of the three-point harness.  At that time, the company issued a product recall, re-designed the structure, and released an instructional video for how to properly use the recliner.

According to the CSPC, infant deaths and parent complaints persisted after the changes made in 2010.  All models but the Nap Nanny Chill have already been discontinued.

Sources: cpsc.gov, abcnews.go.com, napnanny.com