Waking Early

Recalled: 1 million baby chairs from Bumbo
Thu, Oct 25, 2007 (BabyCenter News) — Bumbo has announced a recall of about 1 million baby chairs in cooperation with the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).If the baby seat is placed on a table, countertop, chair, or other elevated surface, a young child sitting in it can arch his or her back, flip out of the seat, and fall onto the floor, which poses a risk of serious head injury.There have been 28 reports of young children falling out of the Bumbo chairs, including three reports of skull fractures. These injuries were due to children falling out of chairs that had been placed on tables.

The recalled Bumbo “Baby Sitter” seat is made of foam, has leg holes, and comes in yellow, blue, purple, pink, aqua, or lime green. It has a round, flat bottom measuring approximately 15 inches across, and the seat back wraps completely around the child. The word “Bumbo” is printed in raised lettering on the front of the seat along with an image of an elephant. The words “Manufactured by Bumbo South Africa, Material: Polyurethane, World Patent No. PCT: ZA/1999/00030″ are printed on the bottom of the seat.

The following caution label is attached to the back of the seat:

WARNING — Never use on a raised surface. Never use as a car seat or bath seat. Designed for floor level use only. Never leave your baby unattended as the seat is not designed to be totally restrictive and may not prevent release of your baby in the event of vigorous movement.

The baby seats were sold online and at various retail stores nationwide including Target, Wal-Mart, Sears, Toys R Us, Babies R Us, and USA Babies. The seats were sold from August 2003 through October 2007 for about $40. They were made in South Africa.

What you can do:

• Don’t let your child sit in the baby seat unattended, and don’t use the seat on a table, countertop, chair, or other elevated surface.

• Contact Bumbo if you’d like to receive a new warning label and instructions. The new warning label will say: WARNING — Prevent Falls; Never use on any elevated surface.

• For additional information, call Bumbo International at (877) 932-8626, between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern time, Monday through Friday, or visit the company’s website.

• See a photo of the recalled baby seats on the CPSC’s website.

• Keep abreast of children’s safety recalls by checking our recall finder.

– Alissa Merksamer, BabyCenter News

Thankfully it’s only being recalled to add a new warning label. What kind of dumbo would leave a kid unattended on a countertop in a Bumbo anyway? I guess it’s the gals that had “Caution: Contents may be hot!” labels put on styrofoam cups for coffee. Well, I’m just glad the Chinese didn’t coat the Bumbo chairs it in lead paint.

In other recall news
38,000 “Go, Diego, Go!” toys were recalled–thankfully we don’t have any of them.
We just got in the mail a notification from the makers of Deeder’s carseat saying that it’s no longer “safe” a part needs to replaced before it’s legal to use again.

How come there were never massive recalls like this until recently? Toys used to be better quality, more carefully made. It’s pretty frustrating, and alarming!