It’s a good thing summer camps are coming up, with their weird seminars on bracelet weaving and whittling rings, because the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has just announced a recall of 19,000 charms sold at Claire’s stores, and says that’s just the beginning. [More]
children
FDA: McNeil Plant That Made Recalled Tylenol Is A Dirty Stinkpot With No Quality Control
By 5.5.10
One of the implied promises of a brand name, especially when it comes to drugs, is you can expect higher quality, but maybe that doesn’t apply when it comes to McNeil products.The FDA says the plant that produced the recently recalled children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl, was using raw materials that were contaminated with bacteria. The plant also lacked adequate quality-control procedures and was dirty. So far none of the recalled medicine has tested positive for bacterial contamination, but the FDA report suggests that the contaminated material was used to make the recalled lots. The plant has been shut down indefinitely. [More]
Johnson & Johnson Not Taking Refunds On Recalled Tylenol Very Seriously
By 5.3.10
When J&J’s McNeil Consumer Healthcare Unit announced a recall of children’s Tylenol, Motrin, Zyrtec and Benadryl over the weekend, it also provided a toll free number you could call for more info. Ron Lieber at the New York Times called it on Saturday to find out how the refund process would work. What he got was a three minute recording telling him to throw the products in the trash, but nothing else. [More]
Pretending To Sell Kids On Craigslist Not Considered Funny By Police
By 4.25.10
The New York State Police do not think it is funny when you place a listing for your two sons on Craigslist. [More]
Bikinis For Children: Now With Padded Bras
By 4.15.10
What constitutes an appropriate swimsuit for elementary school-aged girls? Is a bikini inappropriate? How about a padded bikini? This summer, U.K. discounter Primark tried marketing a bikini with a padded top, aimed at girls as young as seven. It didn’t go well. The chain removed the suit from its racks only hours after tabloid The Sun declared the product a [pedophile] bikini. [More]
It's Never Too Early To Get Your Child Her First Cubicle
By 4.14.10
If you have a child, you want him or her to be prepared for the future. So why not begin their dreary cubicle farm confinement before they even learn how to read? That’s what the Little Tykes Young Explorer does, combining a home cubicle and child-sized seating with a computer loaded with kid-friendly software, all at a rather inflated price. Which is a lot like real office furniture, come to think of it. [More]
You Can Use Bed Bath And Beyond Coupons At Babies 'R' Us (Sometimes)
By 4.2.10
Did you know hat you can take those super-awesome Bed, Bath, and Beyond 20% off one item coupons and use them at Babies “R” Us? Blogger John of Baby At Play heard about this coupon swap, and investigated the situation on behalf of all parents and doting friends and relatives. Turns out it can be done…but not all stores participate. [More]
This Baby Outfit Provides A Disturbing Vision Of The Future
By 3.21.10
Is “Someday I’ll get trashed at prom” an appropriate slogan for a baby t-shirt or onesie? How about “future cougar?” Sure, we at Consumerist like over-the-top humor as much as more than anyone, but can kids’ shirts go too far? Or does it matter all that much when the wearer can’t even talk yet, let alone read? That’s what Brian wonders about this outfit from Wry Baby available at Babies ‘R’ Us. [More]
This Is What Kids Did For Fun In The 80s
By 3.16.10
Josh at GeekSix unearthed a comic book ad that might be familiar to you if you were a kid in the 80s. Olympic Sales Club was one of those door-to-door greeting card companies that enlisted kids across the country to sell crap to neighbors in exchange for merch your parents wouldn’t buy you. [More]
Hey Companies, Little Kids Are Not An Acceptable Sales Force
By 2.23.10
Dale writes to us that his two kids came home tasked with a lame magazine subscription assignment on behalf of a classroom magazine called Weekly Reader. It’s a little sleazy to use kids to pry cash out of the pockets of relatives and friends, and I hold that opinion as both a kid who has had to do it and an adult who has received the manipulative “please help my school!” plea in the mail. [More]
US Airways Uninterested In Seating Small Children With Parents
By 2.18.10
You probably don’t want to be sandwiched between a 2-year-old and a 5-year-old on an airplane. Know who does, though? Their mother. Unfortunately, one parent, blogger Sierra Black, writes that US Airways is not terribly concerned with making sure that parents and children get to sit together. On a seven-hour flight. The airline placed Black and her two children in the center seats of three different rows in different parts of the plane, but no airline staff seemed to understand why she thought that this was a problem. [More]
Why Does The Word "Baby" Make The Same Product More Expensive?
By 1.17.10
Gail has an interesting question. She would like to know why the “baby” version of her son’s eczema cream costs $.50 more than the adult formula, even though the products’ packaging and contents are seemingly identical. [More]
Hollywood Video Giving Away Free Kids
By 12.31.09
I’m going to grab a bunch and resell adopt them out for extra money in 2010. Thanks to Kevin, who snapped the pic and who adds, “I know Hollywood Video isn’t probably doing that hot with the advent of Netflix, but I’m not sure if this is the way to go.” [More]
Self-Described Toy Tester Will Go Through Your Stuff If You Pay Her
By 12.29.09
Every time there’s a warning or recall over lead-tainted toys–and it hasn’t happened much this past year, but check out our archives from a couple of years ago–lots of people get up in arms about not being able to trust the government or big business. Well, one woman has bought herself an X-ray flourescence (XRF) analyzer and now hires her services out to worried families, reports the Washington Post. For a fee, she’ll come to your house, point her gun at your kids’ toys, your heirlooms, the fishtank, whatever you ask her to test, and then tell you whether you should throw it out. [More]
RC2 Agrees To Pay $1.25 Million Over Lead Toys
By 12.29.09
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has just worked out another penalty settlement with a toy company over those lead-tainted toys that graced shelves from 2005 to 2007. Reuters says RC2 will pay a $1.25 million civil penalty to resolve allegations that it “imported and sold Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway toys with paints and surface coatings that contained lead levels above legal limits.” About two years ago, RC2 settled a class-action lawsuit over the same toys. [More]
Pretty Much All Roman And Roll-Up Blinds Recalled
By 12.15.09
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Window Covering Safety Council have announced a “recall to repair” of all Roman shades and roll-up shades, after multiple reports of deaths and near strangulations in recent years. If you’ve got kids in your house and you use either type of window covering, visit www.windowcoverings.org or call 800-506-4636 to receive a free kit that will let you retrofit the shades and blinds with clips. [More]
Your Kids Are Bumming Out The Mall Santa
By 12.14.09
The Wall Street Journal says that this year, mall Santas are spending their breaks looking bleakly at the wall and salting their mugs of bourbon with bitter tears. Why? Because your kids keep sitting on their laps and acting like characters from a Loretta Lynn song. One Santa used to joke that bad kids would get socks, but no more:
This year, he stopped telling the joke. Too many children were asking for socks. “They’ve probably heard their parents say, ‘Geez, I wish I had some money to get them clothes,'” says Mr. Riemersma, 56 years old.
FTC Online Mall Teaches Tweens About Online Privacy, Scammers
By 12.14.09
This month, the Federal Trade Commission unveiled You Are Here, a virtual mall where kids can learn to avoid online scams, spot misleading ads, and learn good habits to be smart consumers. [More]
