Detroit-Based Breathe Easy Baby™ Calls for Science-Based Crib Mattress Safety Testing Includes CO₂ Rebreathing & Airflow

Infant sleep company challenges “breathable” mattress claims without measurable evidence and urges parents to ask: How was the mattress actually tested?

DETROIT, MI, UNITED STATES, September 15, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- Every night, millions of parents place their babies in a crib, turn off the light, and walk away trusting that the mattress beneath their child provides a safe and appropriate sleep surface.

Breathe Easy Baby™ believes parents should be able to ask a simple question about that trusted mattress: Is your baby’s mattress truly safe—and what scientific evidence supports the safety and performance claims being made about my baby’s crib mattress?

Approximately 3,400 babies died suddenly and unexpectedly in the United States in 2024, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Those deaths included SIDS, accidental suffocation, strangulation, and deaths whose cause remained unknown.
Those numbers underscore the need for a broader conversation about crib mattress safety. Rather than asking parents to rely on words such as breathable, comfortable, or safe, Breathe Easy Baby™ focuses its consumer education on evidence-based science, measurable testing, and documented performance.

The Breathe Easy Baby™ crib mattress system was engineered to address two important sleep-surface concerns associated with infant suffocation risk: (1) carbon dioxide rebreathing and (2) resistance to airflow.

The Breathe Easy Baby™ crib mattresses have undergone independent scientific testing for CO2 rebreathing, CO2 dissipation, airflow resistance, firmness, temperature regulation, and surface pressure.

Why CO₂ Rebreathing and Airflow Resistance Are Both Important
When an infant's face comes into close contact with a sleep surface, exhaled air can remain near the nose and mouth and be absorbed into the bedding. If that air is not dispersed effectively, some may be inhaled again — a phenomenon known as CO2 rebreathing. High airflow resistance can also limit how easily air moves against or through the sleep surface, making it more difficult for an infant to breathe.
Australia recently introduced a new standard, AS 5407.3, the world's first CO2 rebreathing standard for infant sleep products. Breathe Easy Baby’s breathe-safe mattresses comply with this standard, giving parents and professionals a measurable way to evaluate airflow and rebreathing claims rather than relying on marketing terminology alone.

Instead of asking, “Is this mattress breathable?” ask: “Has this mattress actually been tested for ease of breathing and CO2 rebreathing risk?”

A Safety Conversation That Has Barely Changed in Decades
The history of infant sleep product safety shows why specific hazards deserve specific scrutiny. Over the past 30 years, numerous infant products have been recalled or removed after being linked to infant suffocation. An American Academy of Pediatrics report attributed 158 infant deaths to inclined sleepers from 2009 through 2023. Nearly 30% had been placed on their backs but were found unresponsive on their stomach or side. In another case, the AAP warned parents to stop using an infant lounger linked to the deaths of two babies. These cases show that product-specific evidence can lead to warnings, recalls, standards, and legislation.

In 2022, the United States strengthened crib-mattress requirements by adopting the Australian crib mattress firmness standard, AS/NZS 8811.1, but there is still no comparable U.S. CO2 rebreathing standard. Australia has taken a more targeted approach with a test focused on CO2 rebreathing performance.

The American Academy of Pediatrics' Back to Sleep campaign dramatically reduced SIDS rates during the 1990s, and Breathe Easy Baby™ supports established safe-sleep practices, including placing babies on their backs on a firm, flat sleep surface. Safe-sleep education should also include questions about how the sleep surface itself performs when a baby's face comes into contact with it.

"Parents are repeatedly told how to put their baby to sleep, but very few are ever advised to ask whether their baby’s mattress is safe if their baby's face comes into contact with it. We believe parents deserve more than reassuring marketing language. They deserve measurable scientific evidence."
— Kelly Obriot, Founder, Breathe Easy Baby™

From Baby-Product Advertising to Scientific Evidence
Breathe Easy Baby™ is deliberately moving away from traditional baby-product advertising built around smiling babies and adoring parents. In their place are graphs, charts, and scientific testing intended to show parents measurable information about mattress performance and its potential safety and health benefits.

The Breathe Easy Baby™ crib mattresses have undergone extensive voluntary scientific testing. In working with Mike Leshner, forensic engineer and world-renowned safe-sleep expert, Breathe Easy Baby™ has tested its mattress system across multiple performance areas. Lesher’s Baby Breathing Lab, https://babybreathinglab.com, has conducted numerous tests on our Breathe Easy Baby™ mattress products, confirming their superior safety and health benefits for infants. Our website states that our mattresses are the Gold Standard of safe sleep, and we have the scientific evidence to back it up. The principle is straightforward: If manufacturers make infant-safety claims, parents should be able to see the evidence behind them.

SIDS is complex, and no mattress can guarantee that SIDS will not occur, and Breathe Easy Baby™ is not claiming that all traditional crib mattresses are inherently unsafe; its role is to address specific sleep-environment hazards such as infant suffocation— especially CO2 rebreathing and airflow resistance — while remaining part of a broader safe-sleep approach.

That distinction is important. The goal is not to frighten parents. It is to give them a scientifically informed option for creating a safer sleep environment and greater confidence while their baby sleeps.

“Every parent knows what it feels like to quietly walk into the nursery and check whether their baby is breathing. We can’t remove every fear that comes with becoming a parent. But if better engineering can reduce a known sleep-environment risk, parents deserve to know that option exists.”
— Kelly Obriot, Founder, Breathe Easy Baby™

For Breathe Easy Baby™, the broader message is simple: infant sleep safety should be measured and confirmed, not assumed.

About Breathe Easy Baby™
Breathe Easy Baby™ is a Southeast Michigan, Detroit-based infant sleep company focused on advancing crib mattress design safety through evidence-based science and testing. The Breathe Easy Baby’s mattress sleep system is designed to promote airflow and help reduce CO2 rebreathing and airflow-resistance concerns. Its breathe-safe mattresses comply with Australia's AS 5407.3 CO2 rebreathing standard.
For product information and infant safe-sleep education, visit https://breatheeasybaby.com.

Kelly Obriot
Breathe Easy Baby™
+1 313-405-2943
kelly@breatheeasybaby.com
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