HALO BassiNest Flex Lawsuit Says Defect Causes Infants to Roll While Sleeping, Increasing SIDS Risk

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A proposed class action lawsuit alleges the HALO BassiNest Flex is dangerously defective in that the infant sleeper is “noticeably tilted” when in use, which can cause a baby in the bassinet to roll from the center of the sleeping surface to the sidewall where their face can end up pressed against the mesh siding. 

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The 114-page HALO BassiNest lawsuit says that the manufacturer touts the bedside bassinet as a safe sleep space for babies up to five months old—and emphasizes its purported commitment to safe sleeping with its trademarked “Back is Best” marketing slogan, indicating that it is safest for an infant to sleep on their back. However, the case says the apparent tilt of the product when in use has led many consumers to report that their infant “rolled from their back[] to their side[] and/or stomach[]” well before it was developmentally appropriate to do so. 

Ultimately, the suit claims the “defective design” of the BassiNest Flex, which reportedly retails for as much as $99.99, makes it impossible for buyers to follow infant safe-sleeping precautions touted not only by HALO but the American Academy of Pediatrics, which suggests that all babies sleep flat on their back on a clutter-free, flat and firm surface to prevent sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), suffocation and strangulation.

According to the complaint, a bevy of consumer comments about the so-called tilt defect and testing and investigation by expert consultants for the plaintiffs have shown that the BassiNest Flex is plagued by an “inadequate support structure” with a cantilever design, which causes the product to be unable to hold and maintain an appropriately level sleeping surface. The suit defines a cantilever as a rigid structural element that “extends horizontally and is supported only at one end,” a bassinet design that, per the case, has been deemed by the children’s products industry and Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) alike as “problematic and potentially dangerous.”

More specifically, the filing continues, the BassiNest Flex, which has only two supporting legs, lacks any additional support in the middle or on the side opposite the legs. As such, the product’s structure leaves it “unable to effectively and safely support an infant laying inside,” the lawsuit says.

“All BassiNest Flexes suffer from this uniform Defect, which, unknown to consumers but known to HALO, exists at the point of purchase and poses an unreasonable safety hazard to infants,” the case reads, contesting that alternative, safer designs were available to, but unused by, HALO in manufacturing the product. 

The filing says that despite the apparent tilting problem, HALO continues to sell the BassiNest Flex to consumers without disclosing the safety hazard and while misrepresenting the product as a “safe sleep solution.” 

“Consequently, as a result of HALO’s failure to acknowledge and inform consumers of the dangerous Defect, consumers are unwittingly placing their infant children in a dangerous bassinet with serious sleeping safety risks, all while having paid a premium for doing so,” the lawsuit charges, calling HALO’s alleged conduct “deceptive, unfair, and unconscionable.” 

The lawsuit looks to cover all persons in the United States who, during the fullest period allowed by law, bought a BassiNest Flex in the U.S. for personal use and not for resale.

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