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'Dangerous': Expert issues warning on sleeping pods following baby death

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 19 May 2026, 5:48pm
A coroner has issued warnings about the use of sleeping pods after a 5-month-old baby died.
A coroner has issued warnings about the use of sleeping pods after a 5-month-old baby died.

'Dangerous': Expert issues warning on sleeping pods following baby death

Author
Newstalk ZB,
Publish Date
Tue, 19 May 2026, 5:48pm

Experts are flagging the dangers of some sleeping devices, after a five-month old's death in 2022. 

The baby boy was found unresponsive and died after being left in his sleeping pod on his stomach, with blankets around his face.

The Coroner says the pods, also called loungers, are unsafe - and recommended more restrictions.  

Emeritus paediatrics professor Barry Taylor says sleeping pods differ from pepī-pods, made of hard plastic.

"If you put your face hard against the hard surface, you've still got spaces in the creases between the nose - so it's not like it's moulded against the face." 

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