Originally Posted by MV:
I'm in CA. From what I understand those baby rockers (I think your talking about one of these) are only "bad" in family child care and against regulation if the child is strapped in (goes against the reg that says that a child cannot be in a device restrained where he/she cannot get out on his/her own. The easy fix and how I get around that is to push the straps through the strap holes and out of the way and not use them. I have never been told that an infant cannot sleep in one HOWEVER that has never come up with me because I don't let infants sleep in them. For me its another alternative to a swing... something safe to put an infant in.
Technically those devices aren't mentioned in the regulations other than the strap thing so if DC provider doesn't use the straps then I can see her getting away with it but it would depend on her licensor. TECHNICALLY the safe sleep thing (back-to-sleep) is a recommendation but it's not actually a licensing regulation, neither is letting an infant sleep in a carseat 
. Our licensing only specifies no sleeping in swings and no awake time in cribs.
wow, I'm honestly shocked that CA isn't super strict about safe sleep regs.