Child Safety Blog

This week the Consumer Product Safety Commission announced a voluntary recall of 24,000 motion beds for babies, writes Jennifer Kerr of the Associated Press. Manufactured by Amby Baby of USA and sold online through its website since 2003, Amby Baby Motion Beds consist of a steel frame and a fabric hammock that has mesh sides and hangs from a spring. The bed gently swings as the baby moves, a feature designed to resemble babies’ motion in the maternal womb.

Although many babies have found comfort in these hammock beds, there is a hidden risk of suffocation: as the bed moves back and forth, babies could roll and become trapped or wedged against the fabric or the mattress pad. In fact, as Jennifer Kerr reports, two infant deaths in the United States have been associated with Amby Baby Motion Beds, which prompted the CPSC’s recall of the product.

In her story, Jennifer Kerr quotes Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger, “There is currently no safety standards that would cover hammocks.” Kerr says that safety advocates maintain that it’s safest for babies to be “in cribs or bassinets with a firm bottom support and no soft bedding, gaps or other points where they could become trapped.”

The CPSC urges parents to immediately stop using the hammock beds for the safety of their babies.

Posted by Patrick A. Malone | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Infant Mortality , Infants , Product Liability

Bookmark:

According to a Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) report, in 2007, there were 22 toy-related deaths in the United States, and in 2008 there were 19. That translates to at least one death every month in from dangerous toys – toys that should provide enjoyment but instead have hidden death traps.

The causes of deaths include, among others, airway obstruction, strangulation, and blunt force. Dangerous toys also account for other serious injuries like laceration and burns, as well as more than 170,000 emergency room visits annually for injuries to children 15 years or younger, according to Don Keenan, Atlanta attorney and child advocate.

Don Keenan has put together a list of Top 10 Dangerous Toys for 2009, available on his website, Keenan’s Kids Foundation. He also has a link to CPSC’s list of recalled toys.

Notably, in Don Keenan’s introduction to the Top 10 Dangerous Toys list, he cautions consumers that many of these dangerous toys, although banned or recalled by the CPSC, still made their way onto the shelves in stores like Target or Walmart. The recalled toys are also easily available on the Internet at sites like eBay or in used toy stores. Other toys that were not recalled also may not be completely safe – in February 2009, the government enacted stringent standards, but Keenan’s Kids Foundation estimates that as many as 5% of toys currently on the market probably do not meet the new safety standards (such as requiring all children products to be tested by a third-party lab to ensure they meet safety standards, and banning the use of phthalates, a plastic softener, or products that contain trace amounts of lead).

Therefore, in this holiday gift-buying season, parents are urged to use extra caution in selecting safe toys, by carefully reading the safety warning label to see if the toy is age-appropriate for your children, and comparing against the CPSC’s recall list.

Posted by Patrick A. Malone | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Infant Mortality , Infants , Product Liability , Toys

Bookmark:

On May 1, 2009, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission announced another recall of cribs made by Jardine Enterprises, the third safety recall since June 2008, reports Patricia Callahan of the Chicago Tribune. All three recalls involved cribs made in China and Vietnam.

The Jardine cribs in the recalls, mostly sold at Toys R Us and Babies R Us, are responsible for more than 30 reports of broken slats, one of the deadliest hazards of baby cribs. When a slat breaks, babies’ bodies slip through the gaps but their heads get stuck, resulting in strangulation and even death.

Parents can access a full list of recalled models at www.cpsc.gov. For those who bought one of the recalled cribs, a credit is available toward the purchase of a replacement.

Posted by Patrick A. Malone | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Infant Mortality , Infants , Product Liability

Bookmark:

The Chicago Tribune uncovered federal safety test results of infant car seats that were never publicized or even made known to some of the infant-seat manufacturers, reported Chicago Tribune’s Patricia Callahan. In the frontal crash tests, a video showed the car seats flying off their bases, throwing baby dummies face-first into the back of the driver’s seat. The test reports also documented that almost half of the 66 seats that were tested in front crashes “either separated from their bases or exceeded injury limits.”

As a result of the Chicago Tribune’s investigations, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has ordered a thorough review of safety regulations for car seats and taken steps to make the safety test results more available to consumers. Before, parents could compare safety ratings for cars, but would have no way of comparing which car seats do better at protecting their babies. They would not have known that more expensive car seats are not necessarily safer, or that some smaller cars performed better than the larger ones in these collision tests.

Posted by Patrick A. Malone | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Cars , Infant Mortality , Infants , Product Liability

Bookmark:

A recent Canadian study shows that pregnant women who live near highways are more likely to give birth to premature or low-birth-weight infants--but only among wealthy mothers. Pollution from the highways is what causes these effects, researchers say. The reason why these results are not found among poorer mothers is, says lead researcher Dr. Melissa Generoux, because poorer mothers have so many more risk factors that this particular single factor has less of an obvious effect. Wealthier mothers, safe from other risks, are more likely to be noticeably affected by this one factor.

Expecting mothers are bombarded with advice and even lectures on the minutest details of what they consume during pregnancy, and are often overcome with anxiety over these matters. Yet they and their children are still powerfully affected by factors outside their personal control, such as the level of pollution near residential areas.

Posted by Patrick A. Malone | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Birth Defects , Infant Mortality , Infants

Bookmark:

The Healthy Start Program for reduction of infant mortality in Anne Arundel County, Maryland is at risk after its recent loss of $610,000 in federal funding.

From the article:

The black infant mortality rate became a "widespread concern" for the county five years ago, when data indicated that the rate increased to 23 infant deaths for every 1,000 live births, the Capital reports. Currently, the infant mortality rate for blacks in Anne Arundel County is four times higher than that of whites, and 21 black infants in the county die before age one for every 1,000 live births, a rate three times higher than the national average.

County Health Officer Frances Phillips hopes to "cobble together a diminished Healthy Start program," but nurses would be unable to complete the 500 home visits or address the 3,000 in annual referrals as they did before, according to the Capital. If county or state funds are not made available for the program, it "would be catastrophic" for the health department, Phillips said, adding, "There is no fat. There is no ability to shave [that much money]."

The loss of funding for this program threatens to have a serious effect on the infant mortality rate in Anne Arundel County.

Posted by Patrick A. Malone | Permalink | Email This Post

Posted In: Infant Mortality

Bookmark: