Potentially lethal baby products – including pillows, sleeping bags and self-feeding items – are being widely sold across UK online marketplaces, a consumer watchdog has warned.

Which? revealed it had discovered 150 “potentially lethal” baby products being sold to UK consumers, including self-feeding props that posed choking risks and pillows that carried a suffocation hazard.

The items were found listed on popular retail websites such as Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Etsy, OnBuy, TikTok Shop and Wish.

Almost a quarter of the products were on Amazon, which the watchdog said presented itself as an industry leader in detecting unsafe goods.

Most of the marketplaces confirmed they had removed the flagged products from sale, except for Wish, which failed to respond to the watchdog’s findings.

Which? focused its investigation on products identified in safety alerts or product safety notices issued by the Office for Product Safety and Standards (OPSS).

Self-feeding products are designed to enable babies to bottle-feed with little to no assistance from a caregiver.

The OPSS issued a safety alert in 2022 warning that the products presented a risk of serious harm or death, and advised businesses to “take specific action to cease use or remove them from the market”.

The outlined risks include harm or death from choking on the feed or aspiration pneumonia – when the feed gets into the baby’s lungs – as babies do not have the dexterity or cognitive ability to control the flow of the feed or to know when to stop.

Which? found 54 baby self-feeders for sale across Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, OnBuy and TikTok Shop – 21 of these were pillow bottle holders that fasten around a baby’s neck.

The OPSS issued a product safety alert in December 2025 for baby sleep pillows, stating their concerns about products marketed for babies under 12 months old, including risks of suffocation and overheating.

Which? found 37 pillows marketed as products for infants under 12 months, many including the words “newborn” or “infant” in the name or description.

Product listings – seen on AliExpress, Amazon, Etsy, OnBuy, TikTok Shop and Wish – mentioned using the pillows to improve sleep, or using them in a crib or cot.

A reviewer of a baby pillow on AliExpress said that it was “way too heavy for a newborn or child under one”, but the listing suggested that at least 1,200 had been sold.

Which? researchers found 59 baby sleeping bags for sale on online marketplaces including Alibaba, AliExpress, Amazon, eBay, Etsy and Wish that they believed were unsafe because of serious risk of suffocation.

The sleeping bags included hoods which could cover a baby’s head and face or lacked arm holes, or both, meaning a sleeping infant could slip down inside.

Which? found 38 sleeping bags on Etsy that raised concerns, including one knitted sleeping bag with a hood and no arm holes that was shown covering a baby’s mouth and nose.

Sue Davies, the head of consumer protection policy at Which?, said: “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.

“Which? has shown how easy it is to find these unsafe products with simple tools, so it’s impossible for us to take companies as powerful as Amazon or eBay at their word when they claim safety is a top priority. Lives will be at risk until online marketplaces are finally forced to clean up their act.”

Which?, a not-for-profit organisation run by the Consumers’ Association, is urging ministers to make online marketplaces legally responsible for third-party products, with tough penalties for those that fail.

Most of the marketplaces confirmed they had removed the flagged products from sale, except for Wish, which failed to respond to the watchdog’s findings.