Is This Safe for Baby? How Biomechanics Can Improve Infant Product Safety 

Dr. Erin M. Mannen is an Assistant Professor and serves as the Director of the Boise Applied Biomechanics of Infants (BABI) Lab in the Department of Mechanical and Biomedical Engineering at Boise State University in Idaho. She earned her Ph.D. in mechanical engineering from the University of Kansas, completed a Post-Doctoral Fellowship in the Center for Orthopaedic Biomechanics at the University of Denver, and began her faculty career in the Department of Orthopaedic Surgery at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. Dr. Mannen’s BABI Lab team uses in vivo human motion experimental techniques to study how babies move and use their muscles in common positions and commercial products to understand the impacts on safety and musculoskeletal development. She was recently awarded the Early Career Achievement Award by the American Society of Biomechanics for her pioneering research. Her passion for baby biomechanics was inspired by her own children, Jay (6) and Lucy (4). In her free time, Dr. Mannen enjoys the great Idaho outdoors with her husband Drew and kids.

Dr. Mannen conducted a study that was integral in getting the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), lawmakers, and advocates to push for a ban on inclined sleep products like the recalled Rock ‘n Play by showing that they are scientifically unsafe for infant sleep. Her study led the CPSC to pass an infant sleep product rule this summer that would essentially ban inclined sleepers from being made, and the U.S. House passed a bill that would ban inclined sleepers, both coming on the heels of her study’s release.