Remember how there was much confusion over exactly what happened with the crying baby who was reportedly taken from her mother during a Southwest Airlines flight? The police said the flight attendant took the baby to the back of the plane, while a Southwest rep said she just offered to hold the baby for a second. Now, the attendant is saying she “made a mistake,” but it wasn’t her actions that were mistaken, it was what she originally told police. [More]
children
California Says Some Bouncy Castles Have Too Much Lead In Them
By 8.17.10
California’s Attorney General, Jerry Brown, has filed a lawsuit that claims too many inflatable structures used at kids’ parties come with high levels of lead in the vinyl–“sometimes dozens of times the federal limit,” reports the New York Times. One of the defendants said the lawsuit was a “witch hunt,” and warned that it would have a chilling effect on what the Times calls the “bounce-house industry.” [More]
Should Kids Under 2 Be Required To Have Their Own Seats On A Plane?
By 8.12.10
Children under 2 years of age are currently allowed to travel in planes on the lap of an adult. However, it’s a practice the National Transportation Safety Board hopes the FAA will put an end to. [More]
Parents Group Calls Happy Meal Version Of The Human Torch A "Horrifying Spectacle"
By 8.10.10
I’m having trouble telling whether the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood is serious, or whether someone at the organization saw that Venture Brothers episode and got confused, so I’ll just describe what they’re doing and you can decide for yourselves. The group has launched a letter writing campaign to demand that McDonald’s stop giving out Marvel superhero toys, specifically The Thing and The Human Torch, because they’re too violent. [More]
Hot Flash Spray Evamist Causes Boobs On Pets, Kids
By 8.2.10
I like FDA warnings like this new one about Evamist, because I can file the symptoms away and use them to impress someone with my Sherlock Holmes skills. Friend: “How did you know she used Evamist?” Me: “Note the tell-tale breasts on her grandchildren and her terrier.” [More]
Woman Sues Qantas Airline After Screaming Child Makes Her Deaf
By 7.26.10
A 67-year-old American woman traveling in Australia last year has sued Qantas, because she says a screaming baby on board one of their flights made her deaf. Now before shake your head, what she describes in her suit is pretty horrific: “The boy allegedly leaned back over his armrest toward [her] and let out a scream so severe that blood erupted from her ears, leaving her ‘stone cold deaf’.” On the other hand, Qantas maintains that it has no way of predicting when a child might scream, since children naturally do that sort of thing. [More]
Sorry, Girls: Your Toy Blocks Cost More, Have Fewer Pieces
By 7.21.10
The first rule of toy marketing: if you want to sell something to girls, make it pink! And in the case of the Fisher-Price TRIO building blocks set on Amazon, make the girls’ product cost $8.50 more than the “standard” product, for no clear reason. Even though it contains fewer blocks. [More]
Nestlé Agrees To Stop Promising Boost Kiddie Drink Is Anti-Diarrheal, Pro-Studying
By 7.19.10
Nestlé is the latest company to slap some nutrients (or in this case probiotics) in a product, call it “functional food,” and market it to shoppers as a healthy and smart product. Last week, the FTC got the company to agree to stop claiming that its chocolate Boost Kid Essentials–which comes with a straw lined with probiotic bacteria (mmm delicious!)–will do things like protect them from diarrhea and improve school attendance rates. The FTC says the claims aren’t substantiated with adequate scientific research. [More]
Should Parents Be Fined For Smoking With A Kid In The Car?
By 7.2.10
I’ve never smoked a cigarette in my life, but I sure inhaled my fair share of my mom’s, dad’s and stepfather’s tobacco when I was a child. Surely one of my earliest developed motor skills was learning how to roll down the window in our Chevy Nova. Now a bill under consideration by the New York State Assembly seeks to put an end to such behavior by fining adults who light up with a child in the vehicle. [More]
Send Junk Email To Chipotle, Feed Children
By 6.25.10
Here’s an interesting promotion: for every 100,000 junk emails sent to nojunk@chipotlejunk.com, Chipotle will donate $10,000 to The Lunch Box, which will help feed school kids with healthy junk-free recipes for lunch, instead of the usual prison cheese and high fructose corn syrup. [More]
Shuttered Tylenol Plant Had Troubling Pattern of Problems
By 6.24.10
Should Tylenol have been recalled sooner? FDA inspection reports going back to 2003 paint a queasy picture. [More]
Old Thermos Ad: Use Our Product Or Your Baby Will Die!
By 6.22.10
I know we all like to laugh at old homemaker ads, like where bad coffee will make your husband have an affair or the wrong douche will let the communists win, but here’s one that pushes it a step further. How? Dead babies. As the scary ad explains, a thermos keeps filthy germ-ridden flies away from the milk, and keeps the milk cold, and that means the milk won’t kill your baby. If you don’t buy this thermos, you may as well make your baby into terrible tasting instant coffee and use it to drive your husband into the arms of his secretary, because that’s what you deserve. [More]
More Moldy Barfy Benadryl And Tylenol Recalled
By 6.17.10
Oopsy-poopsies! Johnson and Johnson forgot to recall four “lots” of Benadryl Allergy Ultratabs and one lot of Extra Strength Tylenol Rapid Release Gels along with the dozens already recalled in Jan. J&J took the pills off the market after consumers complained they smelled moldy and in a few cases, caused vomiting and diarrhea. [More]
If You're Not Going To Buy These Toys From Target, Don't Even Touch Them
By 6.17.10
Jason tells Consumerist that his local SuperTarget seems to have a new policy: don’t even look at the toys on display unless you’re going to buy them. Or maybe this is just the personal policy of a single cranky, elderly employee who scolded Jason’s children for browsing the toy aisle while their parents shopped. Whatever the case, after this incident Jason and his family aren’t keen to buy toys–or anything else–at Target anymore. [More]
Johnson & Johnson Hired Fake Shoppers To Buy Up Bad Motrin, Avoid Public Recall
By 6.14.10
Ever since the FDA and Congress started asking Johnson & Johnson to explain why it keeps recalling medicine, there have been references to an unpublicized “recall” that happened in November 2008. Last month, at a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, a J&J executive swore that the company didn’t mean to mislead anyone. It turns out that wasn’t exactly accurate: Bloomberg has obtained emails from J&J’s company, McNeil Consumer Healthcare, that show executives knew the secret recall would trigger an FDA reaction if the agency got wind of its full scope. [More]
This Subway Meatball Isn't For Kids!
By 6.7.10
It’s great that everyone’s concerned about keeping kids healthy and all, but Jay says the woman working at his local Subway put her foot down on his request for a meatball sandwich for his kid. He says she told him, “You can get ham or turkey but no meatball.” Kids don’t need meatballs! [More]
PediaCare Pulled From Stores, Victim Of Latest Tylenol Recall
By 6.1.10
Blacksmith Brands bought the PediaCare line of children’s cough and cold medicines from Johnson & Johnson last November. Unfortunately, the company hadn’t switched production over to a different facility, so last Friday it had to recall nearly 100,000 bottles that are guilty by association. There have been no complaints so far about the products, but when your manufacturer is under investigation by the FDA’s criminal division you tend to want to play it safe. [More]
Food Companies Pledge To Slash Calories In The Name Of Slimmer Kids
By 5.18.10
Some of the nation’s largest food producers have promised to take 1.5 trillion calories out of products within the next five years, the Associated Press reports. [More]
