Consumerist
complaints
Posts Tagged “
Babies
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complaints
It's been a few weeks without a BPA story, so here goes: Four parents in Ohio have sued Evenflo, Avent America, Handicraft, Playtex Products, and Novartis for using bisphenol A in their baby products. They're seeking class action status. [Washington Post]
US News & World Report's Alpha Consumer Blog offers a quiz to help you determine the answer to the following ever-puzzling question: Can you afford to have a baby? [Alpha Consumer]
above and beyond
Who's Got Good Service? Does Summer Infant Have Good Service? Yes, They Do! Yes, They Do!
Eric's Summer Infant baby gate finally broke after four years of pummeling from his two hyperactive little gate crashers. When Eric called to ask about a replacement part, Summer Infant's response caught him off guard... More »
health
Should Companies Replace BPA Baby Products In The U.S.?
There's nothing official about BPA in the U.S. (yet), and there's no legal reason (again, yet) for a company to refund or replace any products that have BPA in them. But with Canada's newly awarded "toxic" status on the chemical last week, and the subsequent announcements by Nalgene and Playtex that they would stop using BPA in their products, what do you think other companies should do? At least one reader who's now stuck with some BPA baby bottles thinks they should offer a refund.More »
babies
Get Info On BPA-Free Baby Products Via Text Messaging
If you've got a baby and you're concerned about buying unlabeled products that contain Bisphenol A or BPA—which some studies have indicated may lead to adverse health effects in humans—the website Z Recommends has just launched a free text messaging service that lets you query their database of companies while you're standing in the store. They've also got a printable wallet-card you can carry with you, which serves as both a cheat-sheet for the text service and a quick reference source for major companies. More »
recalls
24,000 Cribs Recalled For Faulty Railing
The CPSC has announced the recall of 24,000 cribs for a faulty railing that puts children at risk of falling out. More »
fear
TSA Won't Let Parents Bring Extra Baby Food In Anticipation Of Delays
Two Boston doctors brought, by their admission, "probably two and a half times as much as we'd need" of baby food on a recent flight from Chicago Midway Airport to Manchester, N.H. The TSA agent told them it was above the official limit and confiscated it. The parents argued that in light of record delays, winter weather, and stranded-on-the-tarmac stories, they wanted to be fully prepared. The TSA officers told them they'd need a doctor's note to bring that much food on board—but, um, from another doctor who wasn't one of the parents. More »
babies
Glass Baby Bottles Hit The Market To Answer Concerned Parents' Fears Of Plastic
Earlier this month, several consumer groups announced that heated plastic baby bottles leach bisphenol A "in amounts that were within the range shown to cause harm in animal studies." Now a reader writes in to tell us that companies are already starting to respond to the issue with announcements that they'll be releasing glass bottles in addition to plastic versions. More »
phthalates
Chemicals In Baby Products May Be Dangerous
A recent study shows that phthalates found in some baby products such as shampoos and lotions may be, well, seeping into your baby. Phthalates are thought to cause reproductive problems in children, especially males. They're not listed on the labels, so its hard for concerned consumers to avoid them. More »
scalding
Starbucks Settles Lawsuit After Employee Spills Hot Coffee On A Baby
Starbucks has settled a lawsuit in which a barista accidentally spilled hot coffee on a 7-month-old baby.More »
Ethan Thorn was an infant when his parents brought him into a Starbucks in Somerville's Davis Square in April, 2006. According to the lawsuit, a store employee serving a cup of coffee to Ethan's father accidentally spilled coffee on the baby's legs and groin, causing second-degree burns. The baby was in his father's arms at the time.
If you have babies visiting you this holiday season, don't let them sleep on air mattresses, says the CPSC. They've received several reports of suffocation deaths because the mattresses can be too soft for infants. The same goes for waterbeds, although if you have a waterbed then you're probably living in 1982 and this blog hasn't been invented yet. [CPSC]
British retailer John Lewis is selling the world's most unintentionally disturbing baby bathtub ever. At least we hope it's unintentional. [BoingBoing]
babies
Want To Save Money On Fertility Treatments? Go Straight To In Vitro
Fertility treatment is crazy expensive and there are no guarantees, but a recent NIH-sponsored study "concluded that women who were fast-tracked to IVF [in vitro fertilization] got pregnant three months faster on average, and spent $10,000 less than those who went through the usual preliminaries." The conclusion: it may not be wise for insurers to require women to run the gauntlet of other treatments before trying IVF. More »
dumb babies, redux
Do Baby Einstein Products Make Your Child Stupid? Well, The Lead Tainted Blocks Don't Help
Back in August, the University of Washington issued a press release about a study in the Journal of Pediatrics that examined the effect that baby videos (such as the Disney "Baby Einstein" series) had on young children. More »
Maybe Television Idiot Syndrome (a term we just made up) is reversible: a new study says you can reduce the risk of having an antisocial, depressive child if you reduce his television viewing to less than two hours per day by age 5 1/2. Just make sure you don't fill up those two hours with Baby Einstein vids. [Reuters]
A class-action lawsuit was filed yesterday against Simplicity Inc., Target Corp., and Graco Children's Products Inc. for their roles in the unfolding defective crib recall. The lawyer who filed the suit originally represented the family of a 9-month-old who died in 2005 from one of the badly-designed cribs, which can be dangerous if assembled incorrectly. [Chicago Tribune]
someone think of the children
