I am so glad they got around to doing this. Considering SIDS groups and the American Academy of Pediatrics has been warning parents not to use these for years, I am surprised to it took this long.

We had one because, you know, they sold them. Scary thing. Baby would slide right off it.

I work with an SIDS awareness group, so everytime I see anyone use this, or anything similar, I warned them, some thank me, and some bark "WHAT WOULD YOU KNOW?!?! YOU DON'T HAVE ANY CHILDREN!"

so what's a good compromise so that baby does not develop flat-head?

@howaboutcookie: my kids both have perfectly rounded heads. I don't know if we did everything "right" but here's what I think helped:

-Lots of tummy time during the day
-Not a lot of time in their carseats (in the car, obviously they were in them, but around the house/grocery store/out and about, they weren't)
-Turning their heads opposite sides when putting them down at night.

Anyway, I'm glad to see these sleep positioners are getting the axe. They scared the crap out of me. Both of my kids could roll over pretty early on, and our pediatrician said that if they can get onto their tummy and back, not to worry about them sleeping on their stomach (but of course, still put them to sleep on their back).

And since they COULD roll over - I think it would be way worse to have them roll right into that big thick roll of padding, than to just be on their tummy on a tight sheet.

We used this because our baby had bad reflux..Ours was inclined to help with that..I will say a few times he would work his way down the positioner and would get turned over. Once that happened we stopped using it, I think this is good that they are recommending not using them. Even though they helped a bit with our sons reflux, the babies don't actually stay in that position once they can roll and that is when I can see them becoming a hazard.

oh my goodness! we had one, but my son ended up refusing to sleep in his own bed so it was unused, but how scary...

From what I have read, "flat-head", although unattractive, is not actually dangerous and will fade once the child can roll over on its own, so a device like this is not worth using to avoid the flat-head.

In the article I read this morning, the doctor they were quoting form the Academy of Pediatrics said there is actually no evidence that sleeping in one of these or on an incline in general helps at all with reflux/GERD. That makes sense to me, as my daughter has (still at six months) pretty bad reflux and sleeping on an incline didn't help her at all, so we stopped inclining her crib mattress.

Really surprised to hear how dangerous this product is because it worked like a gem for us for quite some time. The first time I walked into the room and she was on her stomach and the positioner was somehow stretched across her back I put it away. I figured she no longer needed it. Another trick we used was to roll up receiving blankets and firmly tuck them on both sides of our daughter as she slept. It kept her from rolling about just fine.

We used one of these for our 6+ week son who had serious acid reflux...we were instructed to have him sleep on his left side to make sure his stomach emptied properly - as that's the way things flow in there...are rolled up blankets a good alternative? Seems like they would cause similar hazards. It's scary - but doing this helped our son to keep from choking on his own spit up in the night (which he did several times before we started using one of these.)

These things just look unnecessary to me. All infant products should be used with caution and common sense! I feel bad for the little casualties!