We, Too, Believe in Safety

We appreciate your patience while we all took time to fully understand the news about our beloved Deluxe+ docks. In the past week, we’ve seen some misinformation and seek the opportunity to help clarify some key points.

We wholeheartedly support safe sleep environments. We’ll reference a recent US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) statement to avoid confusion on how those environments are defined in the United States:

“CPSC is reminding caregivers to follow these practices to keep babies’ sleep space safe:

• Back to Sleep: Always place the baby to sleep on their back to reduce the risk of sudden unexpected infant death syndrome (SUID/SIDS) and suffocation.
• Bare is Best: Always keep the baby’s sleep space bare (fitted sheet only) to prevent suffocation. Do not use pillows, padded crib bumpers, quilts or comforters.
• Transfer the baby to a firm, flat crib, bassinet, play yard or bedside sleeper if they fall asleep in a swing, bouncer, lounger, or similar product.
• Inclined products, such as rockers, gliders, soothers, and swings should never be used for infant sleep, and infants should not be left in these products unsupervised, unrestrained, or with soft bedding material, due to the risk of suffocation.”

We firmly believe research, testing, and education are key to safe product use.

For years, we have worked alongside the CPSC as they contributed to the development of standards for bedsharing products.  With no global standard specific to this product use yet in place, in 2020 we decided to stop promoting the multi-functional Deluxe+ dock for any type of sleep, anywhere in the world.  At the same time, we also recognized that babies fall asleep everywhere and further education was needed to instruct parents that for naps and overnight sleep, they should place baby in a crib, bassinet, or play yard, which are all products already subject to existing sleep standards.

We acknowledge the agency’s recent decision to classify our Deluxe+ docks within the scope of the new Infant Sleep Product rule. However, we stand by our product and disagree with claims that our Deluxe+ docks are unsafe for their multifunctional, non-sleep uses. We encourage parents and caregivers to review our safety guide: https://dockatot.com/pages/safety-guide

To avoid any confusion: The Notice of Violation that was issued to DockATot was “for manufacturing a non-compliant infant sleep product after June 23, 2022, an apparent violation of the ISP rule.”

Please understand that the notice took us by surprise too, as we have always worked cooperatively with the CPSC and had reached out to it numerous times over the past year to ensure our understanding of the new rule was correct.  Until very shortly before publicizing the recent Notice of Violation, the CPSC hadn’t previously indicated any concerns as it relates to the Deluxe+ dock under the Infant Sleep Product Rule.  

This technical violation does not constitute a recall and we believe the CPSC statements were intended to capture headlines. While we feel misrepresented by the CPSC’s positioning to the media, we sympathize with the complexities of trying to simplify nuanced messaging for media-sized sound bites.  We hope the agency will focus on pursuing opportunities to educate parents (current and future) about safe sleep.

We continue to believe our Deluxe+ dock to be the most tested lounger on the market.  As a small company, we have always invested heavily in collaborating with the leading experts on research and testing and also focused heavily on involvement with product safety standards in order to deeply understand safety and regulations across all the products we manufacture. That experience will continue to guide our strategic direction and development as we launch new products to meet the needs of families and meet or exceed all product standards.

With so many headlines across the juvenile products industry, we understand how confusing and unsettling it must be as you’re exploring new products or evaluating the safety of the ones you use daily. Our commitment to you is to use our voice to continue to help educate and provide resources around safe product use.

As parents ourselves, we thank you for the opportunity to also speak our truth.

Sincerely,

Team DockATot