CPSC Issues Warning For Carter's Tagless Babyclothes Causing Rashes
The CPSC has issued a warning about Carter's "tagless" clothes causing rashes. The warning was made on Oct 24, Consumerist first told you about it on September 5th. Carter's tagless clothes' claim to fame is that instead of an irritating flappy label, they use a flat label embedded in these clothes. It's this very label that's causing the rashes. The warning only applies to the Carter's Fall 2007 line which has a raised surface with a solid, instead of a stenciled, background.
One mother, Amy Muir, told KNBC of the postage-stamped rash, saying, "The pajamas were stuck to the skin and back of his neck. I started to pull and the skin came off with his pajamas."
Carter's has not recalled the product, saying the rashes are just rare allergic reactions, and that it received fewer than four reported rashes for every 1 million sold.
Parents are advised to stop using the Carter's clothes if rashes develop, and you can send them back to the manufacturer for a full refund by contacting 1-888-282-4674 or contactus@carters.com.
Carter’s Tag-less Infant Clothing Safety Advisory [KNBC]
CPSC and Carter’s Advise Parents of Rashes Associated with Heat Transferred, or “Tag-less,” Labels [CPSC]
A Message From Carter's [Carter's]
PREVIOUSLY: Carter's Tagless Baby Clothes Causing Rashes?
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Comments:
Maybe its the crappy fabric that Carters uses. You may as well drape your kid in sandpaper. Carters is crap.
That's what Carters gets for manufacturing the tagless decals out of ground up recycled flip-flops that they got a great deal on from Wal-mart.
@homerjay- Smiling politely: What do you dress your kids in? The finest silks from the far east?
We've never had a problem with Carters. I can't seem to fit in to the clothes to test them out first hand, but they feel as soft as anything else.
@dabrown: I agree. I like Carter's clothes and so does my 18-month-old, it seems.
I'm glad they switched to the 'stencil' tag. I wonder if they did it in response to this problem? In any case, my daughter has fortunately never had this problem.
"One mother, Amy Muir, told KNBC of the postage-stamped rash, saying, "The pajamas were stuck to the skin and back of his neck. I started to pull and the skin came off with his pajamas.""
Oh God, how horrifying. With a description like that I can see why people would get upset.
I thought maybe the stitching was just rubbing them the wrong way. Are they using acidic ink or something?
It's easier to print something with a background rather than standalone characters. My guess is you're seeing the lowest bidder.
I work for a printing company, though we don't do much for fabric. I'm guessing that someone got the account with an ink system that seemed to work well enough and a very low price.
@dabrown: Anytime I've ever picked up anything from Carters its been awful. That was a while ago, though, so maybe things have changed but for me its always felt felt like sandpaper.
Imagine a car with vinyl seats on a hot day and you sit down with shorts for a while and then try and get out.
That's what it probably felt like for that baby except exponentially more painful.
Tagless "tags" are made of vinyl and are heat applied to the garment. The older items did not cause as many problems because there was less continuous surface area to contact the skin.
Putting such a large area of vinyl in a spot that will come into contact with skin is a terrible idea.
The person that greenlit the design should be forced to drive a 76 Ford Pinto with vinyl seats for a week during the summer in Houston with no AC and a busted window crank on the driver's side window.
Our daughter had a bad reaction to these onesies when she was three months, and now has permanent red discoloration on her upper back where the tags were. She had huge flakes of skin coming off. We had assumed that it was the Old Navy onesies we had and threw those away, only to find out later that it was the Carters, and that there were lots of others with the same issue.
We took her in to a special appointment on a sunday morning it got so bad because it was flaking and bleeding and oozing. The doctor diagnosed her with eczema or psoriasis. That freaked us out, luckily it's just poisonous clothing :P
We won't be buying any more Carters clothes for a long time, which sucks because Carters is the biggest, most widely available brand.
@Altdotweb: I didn't think of the surface area issue, but I doubt they're vinyl. If so, they wouldn't be able to sell them in California or Europe.
These should be heat transfers, meaning only adhesive and ink.
@homerjay- Smiling politely:
Some of the fire retardant p.j.'s can seem scratchy but after a few washes they're o.k. I've found most of their stuff to be just as soft as any cotton t-shirt.
An allergic reaction sounds very plausible....in which case, demanding Carter's do a recall would make about as much sense as having Planters recall peanuts because some people were having a reaction to them...
i get emails from cpsc, but i didnt get an email with this recall. makes me wonder what else im not getting.
My daughter got this rash as well. She was a preemie and has sensitive skin, so I never really thought about the tagless tags. I just went through her old clothing and found four pieces that had the offending tags, they were in a box that I was going to put on consignment. I'll be calling tomorrow to start the refund process. Carter's isn't cheap, and I'm generally happy to pay a bit more for their quality, but this was a obvious cheap out.
@RedwoodFlyer: Not really. Peanuts (which people are allergic to) are the main ingrediant of peanuts. Clothing is, however, not entirely constituted of cheap ink that could possibly cause your skin to rash up. In fact, I'm fairly certain most people don't consider "ink" to be a main part of pretty much any article of clothing.
@freepistol: It came out last week. I got the email a ok.
[www.cpsc.gov]
My son has extremely sensitive skin, but never had issues with these. I feel for the babies that did, though. Carters is ubiquitous right now for baby clothing.
The line is from Fall 07 and most regs did not go into place until late 2007.
Poly Vinyl Chloride (PVC) is the main ingredient in most inks. It's not the the vinyl content that is banned in Ca and Europe, It's the softeners (Pthalates) that are banned.
Printing something with ink, curing it, and then applying heat will produce a surface that is similar to vinyl.
Yeah, I'm pissed at Carter's about this. I used to buy a lot of their stuff for my daughter, but never again. My 6 month old baby had brain surgery in August, and we were so into the tagless clothes for her because it wouldn't bother the 3" vertical sutures and scar from the nape of her neck, up. Wrong. Instead, in *one night* the Carter's label gave her a red, open sore that left her screaming.
The poor thing goes through enough with brain cancer, spine cancer, chemo and sinus problems - she doesn't need some crap corporation giving her a rash because it wants to use cheap-ass materials to save $0.0000012 per unit. I am fed up with this.
It's OT, but I used to also use Avent products with her. Then one day I queried Avent about whether they use BPA, since the info was not readily disclosed in product packaging or online. They sent me a defensive email back arguing that BPA is just fine for my baby because the FDA said so. Now, like I knew was coming, the FDA says BPA is harmful. I had stopped using any BPA-containing product anyway, and have totally blacklisted Avent for their anti-health attitude.
(No,the BPA did not give her cancer. No, I will not be suing anyone.)
PS. @bunnymare: PS, Carter's can shove a refund up their ass. The refund doesn't make my kid suffer any less pain. This is one scenario where a refund is not nearly a sufficient solution.
My baby had this mystery rash as well. Doctor seemed to think we needed to put baby lotion on it. I had no idea the cause of the rash before I read the stories here. I will never buy from Carters again if they are unwilling to do the right thing and be an honest corporate citizen. At the very least their consumers deserve an apology and a recall.
@freepistol: "Carter's has not recalled the product, saying the rashes are just rare allergic reactions,"
I think this is much more wide spread than Carter's admits. Multiple times over the last year my son has gotten a red spot on his neck, I'd assumed his "tag" had been scratching him and or he'd been itching it, only to check and discover he was wearing a tag-less shirt. I was confused, but it wasn't bad, just red so I let it slide. Perhaps sensitive skin babies have a worse reaction, but anything that has something in it to irritate your skin should be used in any clothing, let alone baby clothing!
Our son has been getting this red, irritated, burn like rash with skin peeling off. We have gone to see multiple doctors to find out what the cause may be. I've changed TONS of things in our house (Laundry soaps, bath products, cleaning products) trying to figure out the cause. We were about to take our poor 6 month old son in for a painful skin test to see if that may help & a friend watched the report then told me. I can't tell you how relieved my husband & I are. It is scary when you think that you might be using a product that is hurting your child. We even stopped breast feeding in case it was an allergy to milk then tried through multiple formulas.Carters really needs to make sure those clothes are exchanged for a better quality product & help these families with all additional expense they may have due to this. Don't get me wrong I truly LOVE Carter's clothing but this was a mess up on their part. When we contacted Carter's they told us they think it isn't a product problem but if we have to return them to make ourselves feel better then they would allow it. Since we no longer use those tagless outfits he has not had further issues. Looks like a product problem to me!
My daughter had a rash as well. I always thought it was heat rash! Luckily, it was never very bad. But looking back now and looking at the photos, I know that's exactly what it was-- a reaction to her tagless onesies. Ugh.
I'm glad the company is offering refunds, but they absolutely should do a recall, and reformulate their tagless designs immediately.
They use these in all sorts of clothes nowadays - I guess the difference is the baby can't take the shirt off if it makes him itch. There are definitely some people with an allergy to the stuff though - I would guess the allergy is related to whatever keeps the ink stuck to the fabric.