OK, we all know that Disney recalled its Baby Einstein videos a couple of weeks ago because - surprise! - the videos do not turn your baby into Einstein. Following a class action lawsuit, the Baby Einstein company agreed to refund $15.99 for up to four DVDs, purchased between June 2004 and September of this year, per family.
Here’s the question we’re asking, though. Is there anyone on the planet who actually thought these DVDs would turn their little dimple-cheeked darlings into geniuses?
If you’ve got any of those yummy Plum Organics baby food pouches lurking in your kitchen, pull them out and take a look. The Emeryville-based company just recalled a batch of its Apple & Carrot Portable Pouch baby food - it’s the 4.22 ounce size, with a use-by date of May 21, 2010, and the number #890180001221 on the bottom. No one has gotten sick and the rest of the Plum Organics line seems to be OK, but this particular batch lacked the FDA-approved acidity levels that prevent contamination with the nerve toxin - Clostridium botulinum - that causes botulism. Lovely, huh? As a precaution, Plum Organics recalled the batch. If you’ve got a pouch at home, return it to any Toys R Us or Babies R Us store for a full refund.
The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission and Kolcraft just recalled 425,000 infant play yards after a 10-month-old baby boy strangled to death. Twelve different models are included in the recall and all of them have a raised changing table with a strap that forms a loop underneath. One model also has a rocking cradle in which children can become trapped and suffocate. There have already been 45 reports of babies rolling to the side of the cradle and getting wedged. These play yards were sold between 2001 and 2007. Check the web site for specific model numbers, then contact the company to get replacement parts.
Bouncy, bouncy, ouch. The Consumer Product Safety folks and BabyBjörn just recalled 6,500 of these Balance Air bouncer chairs. Seems there are sharp metal objects in the padded area that can protrude and possibly injure babies. No injuries reported, but just the same, if you’ve got one of these, check the model number against the CPSC list. The $170-$190 seats were sold between last September and July 2009. If you’ve got one, contact the company for return instructions.
“Booties Camp: Sleep Issues”
July 29 at 10 a.m. at Bananas, Oakland
Sleep, and the lack thereof, are the topic of this week’s Baby Booties Camp at Bananas. Register here.
“Childhood Matters: Breastfeeding”
Aug. 2 from 7 to 8 a.m. on 98.1 KISS-FM and streamed live on Childhoodmatters.org. Rona Renner, RN, and panelists discuss breastfeeding and other inexpensive, healthy ways to feed babies.
“Living with Ones & Twos”
Aug. 4 at 7 p.m. at Bananas, Oakland
Speaker: Nurse practitioner Meg Zweiback leads a discussion on toddlers, their developing personalities and stages. (Register here) Read the rest of this entry »
The $343 million baby luxury market soon may be a thing of the past, a relic of the early 21st century’s spend-spend-spend mentality. Industry watchers are noticing a marked uptick in the numbers of families who’ve stopped buying luxury baby gear - new strollers with iPod docks for baby *and* mom, anyone? Instead, they’re parking their Lexuses (Lexi?) at the curb of second hand baby stores, cruising CraigsList and embracing hand-me-downs.
“The recession, it seems, has catalyzed a moment of reflection among the formerly free-spending new-parent set,” New York Times reporter Sarah Wildman writes, “Used is good; free is best.”
The result? The “play and discover” market - industryspeak for “stuff for kids ages 0-1″ - that soared 75 percent between 2003 and 2007, is tanking now. Sales plunged by more than a third in 2008 alone. Wildman’s fascinating piece in yesterday’s New York Times - “For Firstborns, Secondhand Fits the Bill” - notes that the new frugality is not limited to those who can’t afford the latest $900 Bugaboo or swanky $1,000 changing table. Affluent families are questioning their spending too. And they started doing it before the economy really hit its stomach-churning slide. So what do you think? Is this part of the too-much-stuff eco-consciousness of today? Or are we finally waking up from our Madison Avenue-induced trance?
We’ve ranted and railed about Simplicity cribs so much, it’s a wonder we’ve got any voice - or typing fingers - left. After umpteen gazillion crib recalls, guess what? Here’s another one: the Consumer Product Safety folks have recalled yet another 400,000 Simplicity drop-side cribs whose plastic parts are deformed or subject to breakage. The parts failure means the sides drop spontaneously (see illustrative photo) and have killed one 8-month-old, trapped or nearly trapped 25 others, and endangered still more. CPSC has also posted a handy list with details on the previous Simplicity recalls too. For those of you keeping score, we’re up to 2.369 million recalled cribs and bassinets from this now defunct company. You can follow those links to see the model numbers but frankly, if it says Simplicity anywhere on the thing, we wouldn’t want it in our house.
May we suggest that you put your baby to sleep in a dresser drawer? Or the bathtub, perhaps? OK, maybe that’s not such a good idea… but there’s been another major crib recall. Jardine Enterprises and the Consumer Product Safety folks just recalled 96,000 cribs - that’s in addition to the 320K Jardine cribs last June and the 56K in January - because the slats are so flimsy, they can break. Babies can get stuck and even strangle to death in the resulting hole. CPSC has gotten 31 reports of slats breaking, including two cases where children became trapped in the gap. In 10 cases, the slats were broken by babies or toddlers inside the crib, which means either there’s been a surge in adoptions from the planet Krypton or those slats are flimsy indeed.
You may have seen the news story yesterday that 2007’s birth rate topped the baby boom record with 4,317,119 births. But the part of the story that left us stunned was that 40 percent of those 4.3 million births were to single mothers, and three quarters of them were over 20, so it’s not some huge spike in the teen birth rate, although that rose slightly too. How times change! It wasn’t that long ago that an unwed mother was a scandalous figure. Now it’s the norm. The Angelina Jolie effect, perhaps? It makes us wonder too why we’re not seeing that trend in our own social circle. Are you?
OK, we all know that Disney recalled its Baby Einstein videos a couple of weeks ago because - surprise! - the videos do not turn your baby into Einstein. Following a class action lawsuit, the Baby Einstein company agreed to refund $15.99 for up to four DVDs, purchased between June 2004 and September of this year, per family.
