Unsafe baby products online, including self-feeding devices, sleep pillows and sleeping bags, are still listed across eight UK marketplaces despite official recalls and safety alerts, a Which? investigation has found. The consumer group identified 150 such products sold by third-party sellers on platforms including Amazon, eBay, TikTok, Alibaba, AliExpress, Etsy, OnBuy and Wish.
Recalled Products, Still on Sale
The scale of what Which? uncovered is hard to dismiss. More than a third of the 150 flagged products were self-feeding devices designed to prop a bottle against a baby’s face with little or no parental assistance. Of those, 33 used a long-straw design and 21 were pillow bottle-holders fastened around the baby’s neck.
These products were available despite a GOV.UK Urgent Safety Alert for baby self-feeding products that required businesses to immediately remove all such devices from the market, on the grounds that they cannot comply with the General Product Safety Regulations 2005. That alert followed an earlier OPSS notice published on 30 November 2022. The risk cited was unambiguous: choking.
A concrete example of the problem sits in a GOV.UK product recall for the BleuRibbon Baby Shop Baby Self-Feeding Pillow (PSD Number 2603-0052), a hands-free feeding pillow of Chinese origin classified as a Serious Risk due to choking and aspiration. It was flagged by a Local Authority Trading Standards service. The product was recalled. It should not be findable. Yet the Which? investigation suggests products of the same type remained listed.
Which? also found 59 sleeping bags with hoods or without armholes, and 37 sleep pillows marketed for newborns. The OPSS safety alert for baby sleep pillows, published on 11 December 2025, was issued following child fatalities. It warned that such pillows pose a risk of suffocation, overheating, and death, and that they increase the risk of Sudden Infant Death. Some of those pillows had been marketed with claims of improving night-time sleep.
Why Unsafe Baby Products Online Keep Reappearing
The platforms, when pressed, said broadly the right things. Amazon said it had removed the flagged products and ‘continuously monitored’ listings, taking ‘swift action when alerted to potential issues.’ Etsy said it had removed all flagged listings, adding: ‘Keeping our users safe is paramount.’ AliExpress said the relevant products had been removed from the UK market and that it would make ‘necessary enhancements to our existing control measures.’ OnBuy said it had been working closely with OPSS.
The statements are welcome. They do not address the structural problem, which is that reactive removal after a journalist flags something is not the same as a duty to prevent harm.
Sue Davies, head of consumer protection policy at Which?, put it plainly: ‘The lives of babies are at risk because these platforms won’t stop dangerous products from reaching their customers, even though they are well aware that these products can be deadly.’ She called on the government to ‘impose a clear legal duty on online marketplaces for ensuring the safety of products sold through their third-party sellers, with tough enforcement for those that fall short.’
The legal mechanism to do exactly that already exists. The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 (Chapter 20) received Royal Assent and grants the Secretary of State the power to make regulations covering the marketing or use of products in the United Kingdom, with specific provisions covering online marketplaces and persons carrying out activities in relation to products. Davies urged the government to ‘urgently use the new powers it has under the Product Regulation and Metrology Act’ to act. The Act exists. The powers are there. The question is whether ministers use them.
Ruth Watts, a registered health visitor, told the BBC she was not surprised by the findings. ‘Parents are the most vulnerable consumers out there,’ she said. ‘We want what’s best for our babies, we’re desperate for sleep, and if a product is promising you that it will help your baby sleep better… it’s of course tempting.’ Her advice: check whether a product is recommended by the Lullaby Trust, the baby sleep safety charity. If something promises a quick fix, it probably is not safe.
Which? advises parents not to buy any self-feeding aid, to avoid sleeping bags with hoods or without armholes, and to avoid any sleep pillow for a baby under one. The safest sleep environment, according to the Lullaby Trust, is a firm, flat mattress on the baby’s back in a clear cot, with no attachments, no props, and no promises.
The Product Regulation and Metrology Act 2025 is now on the statute book. If the government does not use it to impose direct liability on marketplaces for recalled products still appearing on their platforms, the next fatality will be harder to explain away.
