We’re warning parents and carers to be on high alert for online ads promoting baby products that claim to help with colic, reflux, sleep and soothing, after finding ads that promoted potentially dangerous products and practices in ways that could put babies at risk of serious harm or death.
This warning follows a large-scale monitoring exercise of the health sector using our AI-powered Active Ad Monitoring system. We identified 350 online ads for baby products and services, and a review of a sample of these ads found that nearly all referred to symptoms or conditions.
59% of the ads we assessed were considered high risk, while 60 ads were identified for follow-up action because of the potential risk of physical harm.
What we found
Some of the problems we’ve seen include:
- Claims that lying flat is the problem, with products promoted as a solution by positioning or elevating the baby
- Claims that sleep or elevation devices can reduce or stop reflux, ease distress, improve sleep or prevent colic
- Images of babies strapped into potentially unsafe sleep devices
- Claims relating to sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) and flat head syndrome, including suggestions that products could reduce associated risks
Our biggest concern was around ads for sleep and elevation devices, which made up 56% of the ads we assessed.
NHS guidance and the Lullaby Trust advise that babies should sleep flat on their backs on a firm, flat surface and warn against using inclined or elevated sleep products. Yet we found ads presenting these products as solutions to problems such as reflux, colic and poor sleep, including claims that positioning or elevating a baby could reduce symptoms or improve sleep. Unsafe sleeping practices can put babies at risk of serious injury or, in the most tragic cases, death.
Many of the ads we saw were also clearly aimed at sleep-deprived or first-time parents, who may be particularly vulnerable to claims promising a quick solution to a distressed or unsettled baby.
Having a baby who is struggling with reflux, colic or sleep can be extremely difficult, and parents may understandably look online for something that could help. This makes it particularly concerning when ads present potentially unsafe products as a solution to these problems and undermine safe sleep advice.
We’ve previously taken action over ads for baby sleep products. In 2024, we banned an ad for a ‘newborn anti-roll pillow’ that showed a baby in an unsafe sleep position. In 2025, the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) issued a Safety Alert for baby sleep pillows following child fatalities in the UK and overseas.
We’re liaising with our regulatory partners about these ads and sharing the intelligence we’ve gathered, recognising that some of the concerns identified go beyond advertising and raise wider product safety issues.
The OPSS has also today issued a product safety alert to warn consumers about baby sleeping bags that contain a hood or do not have arm holes, reinforcing wider efforts across regulators and safety organisations to promote safer sleep practices and reduce risks to babies.
Advice for parents and carers
Our message to parents is simple: be wary of ads promising a quick fix for problems like reflux, colic or poor sleep. If an ad promotes a product that involves positioning or elevating your baby while they sleep, don’t assume it’s safe just because the ad says it can help. Check advice from trusted health and safer-sleep organisations, and if you’re unsure about a product, speak to a healthcare professional.
Our Regulatory Projects Manager Jessica Tye said:
“Parents may, understandably, be worried and exhausted when their baby is struggling with reflux, colic or not sleeping and may be looking for anything that could help. But when an ad takes those worries and uses them to promote a product or practice that could put a baby in danger, it’s unacceptable and something we take very seriously.
“The ads we identified through our monitoring raised serious concerns for us, which is why we’re taking immediate action today to warn parents and share what we’ve found with our regulatory partners.”
Minister for Consumer Protection Kate Dearden said:
“As these findings demonstrate, parents must be able to trust baby products are safe and do not undermine established medical advice. We will continue working closely with regulators, businesses and safer-sleep experts to remove unsafe baby products and hold those responsible to account.”
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