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Kolcraft Recalls Play Yards After the Death of a 10-Month-Old Child

WASHINGTON, D.C. - In cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), Kolcraft Enterprises Inc., of Chicago, Ill., is voluntarily recalling about 425,000 infant play yards following the death of a child.

CPSC received a report of a 10-month old boy who strangled on the changing table’s restraint strap that was hanging down into Kolcraft’s “Sesame Beginnings” Travel Play Yard where the child was located.

Twelve different Kolcraft play yards are included in this recall. All of the play yards have raised changing tables with a restraint strap that forms a loop beneath the changing table, posing a strangulation hazard to a child in the play yard.

In addition to the strangulation hazard with the changing table restraint strap, one play yard also has a raised cradle that rocks back and forth. A child can roll and get trapped against the side of the cradle in the Contours 3-in-1 Play Yard. If that happens, a child can suffocate. Kolcraft has received 45 reports of children rolling to the side of the rocking cradle attachment.

The recalled play yards were sold in a variety of colors and patterns. Play yards and model numbers included in this recall are listed in the chart below. The model number is printed on a white sticker located on one of the feet of the play yard. They were manufactured in China.

The play yards were sold at retail stores nationwide from January 2001 through September 2007 for between $50 and $130.

Consumers should immediately stop using the changing tables and rocking cradle and contact the firm for instructions on receiving a free non-looped replacement strap for the changing table and a free repair kit to secure the base of the cradle. Consumers should immediately cut off and remove the existing changing table restraint strap. Consumers should always remove the raised changing table and cradle or bassinet before placing a child in a play yard.

A free repair kit for the rocking cradle will be sent to consumers separate from the replacement strap.

For additional information, call Kolcraft at (888) 655-8484 anytime, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.kolcraft.com

This hasn’t hit the mainstream media yet, but don’t use:

Warning Issued on Baby Colic Remedy
Source: Associated Press/AP Online
Publication date: 2007-09-21
Arrival time: 2007-09-20
WASHINGTON - Federal health authorities warned parents Thursday not to give babies a liquid herbal supplement marketed as a remedy for colic and teething pain because several bottles tested positive for a parasite that may have a sickened a 6-week-old infant in Minnesota.
Lab tests conducted by the Food and Drug Administration confirmed the presence of Cryptosporidium, a parasite that can cause diarrhea and intestinal infections, in unopened bottles of apple-flavored Baby’s Bliss Gripe Water, according to the FDA. The supplement’s distributor, MOM Enterprises of San Rafael, Calif., said it had recalled about 17,600 bottles of the product that were being sold through the Internet and at retail stores nationwide.

The Minnesota baby so far is the only person with a reported illness possibly linked to the product, which is sold in 4-ounce bottles with the code 26952V and has an expiration date of October 2008.

The FDA said that people infected with Cryptosporidium generally display symptoms within two to 10 days. The most common symptom is diarrhea, and other symptoms include dehydration, weight loss, stomach cramps or pain, fever, nausea and vomiting. Health officials advised consumers to discard any of the product they have and to consult a pediatrician if it was consumed by a child who seems sick.

MOM Enterprises is offering full refunds. Consumers can call 877-457-4955 for more information.

Publication date: 2007-09-21
© 2007, YellowBrix, Inc.

One of the little kid’s that Van plays with was recently diagnosed with Gingivostomatis. At first Jolene (her mom) thought it was simply her teething and the inevitable crankies that go along with. This was reinforced by her pediatrician but like any good parent Jolene persisted and brought Riley in anyway and come to find out - not only are her teeth driving the poor thing crazy but she also has sores all over her mouth and not one but two! good reasons to not want to eat. Poor baby.

We found this out yesterday afternoon. So now Jody (Van’s mom) is worried sick that Van accidentally picked it up from Riley and brought it the BBC group and all the kids were exposed. But eh! that happens with any kids group and I’d rather it happen from people I know than strangers (at least I know these women care for and about their kids and aren’t derelicts).

Lots of calls and emails later and we’ve decided to keep Van, Anthony and Bode out of class for the rest of the week since they are normally the 3 swapping spit via sippy cups.

Symptoms:
- bumps or sores inside the mouth on the gums, tongue and throat. Side effects also include loss of appetite. There is no fever, so unless they get the bumps, there is no way to tell if they have the germ.

To learn more about this disease, BabyCenter has a write up on it. Click here for more info.

(Excerpt) One way to  temporarily ease the pain is to dip a cotton swab in a one-to-one mixture of a liquid antacid (such as Maalox or Mylanta) and liquid children’s antihistamine (such as Benadryl), and gently coat the inside of your toddler’s mouth with the solution. The combination of these two over-the-counter medicines will coat and soothe the sores.  In severe cases, your doctor may recommend adding a prescription medicine to the mix.

Please bear in mind nothing I say above is a professionals opinion in anyway, only thoughts and views of other parents. If you think your child may have this disease please consult their pediatrician and follow their advice.

So I’m sitting here doing research and more research and frankly am feeling a bit like Scarlett vs Rhett atm. I’m thinking the diaper companies “frankly don’t get a damn”.

I need to buy some more pampers and was glad to see they are on sale at 3 different stores this week. Of course they are all different size packs so I had to do some research on it and figured maybe someone else could benefit from my mind-bending activities.

CVS - pampers mega pack bay dry or cruisers diapers for $12.99

Target - pampers jumbo pack cruisers, swaddlers, baby dry, easy ups and feel n’ learn - 2 for $15 (or $7.50 e)

Kmart - pampers jumbo (doesn’t state type but ad shows baby dry) for $8.99

I looked up the diapers on Amazon and found size counts on 3 & 4 for the cruisers. Baby-dry didn’t show up so this isn’t perfect.

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My findings:

JUMBO packs:
cruisers - size 4 - $11.99 on amazon - 30 ct - 7.50(target)/30 = 25 cents
- size 3 - $11.99 on amazon - 35 ct - 7.50(target)/35 = 21 cents

MEGA packs:
cruisers - size 3 - 52 ct - $11.98 amazon - 13(cvs)/52 = 25 cents

Target also has LUVS family-packs on sale for $15 if anyone needs those (size 3 - 92 ct - 15/92 = 16 cents).

I use LUVS during the day and Pampers at night.

So… I wrote that post last night and was feeling pretty good about life once Ant went to sleep. WTH was I thinking?!?!?! I *tried* to go to bed about 12:45a. Um yeah…. Ant woke up… I let him cry for a bit. In fact I set 1:30 in my mind as the time to go in there if he didn’t stop. 1:28a and I was heading in there. O boy what a looooooong day. I knew he wouldn’t sleep if I put him in bed with me. He’s too used to his own space these days, which I can’t say I blame him. So I figured if I laid down with him on the bed in his room we could both get some sleep. WRONG! 2 boobs and 45 min later we were both still awake. And seriously annoyed with each other. I gave up and put him back in his crib and he finally fell asleep again.

So you would think he slept later than normal after that, right? Right?! Hell no. In fact I woke up shortly after 6am and noticed he was quieter than normal. Apparently sometime in the 3 hours of sleep I managed to get I turned off the monitor by my bedside so I was hearing him crying echoing thru the house. I stumbled through getting dressed ~ still thinking I was going to go to my workout class ~ and got him up. Well out of bed at any rate. The little pooper fell back asleep when I nursed him on the couch until around 8a! The only reason he woke up was I finally got my boob back and he wasn’t having it. GRRRRRRR!!!! Needless to say I didn’t make it to working out.

Luckily we took a nap together today for 2 hours and he was pleasant all day And even though he played for a bit before falling asleep he is blessidly getting some zzzzz’s. Now if I could get some of my own…

So Anthony wouldn’t sleep today. Not just the “I’ll only sleep for a few min” that he sometimes does but flat-out no - I won’t sleep. He’s been up since 6:30a. YES It’s been a verrrry long day. To top that off Nick has the brilliant notion to bring him by his parent’s house to cheer them up so Anthony didn’t even get to attempt the 2nd nap that I was going to put him down for. Needless to say - it’s been a verrry long day. Am I repeating myself? Well it bears worth repeating. Ant fussed his way through an early dinner (which got burned by the way while we were visiting the grandparents - salvageable but barely) and his bath. I put him down early at 6:15 instead of his normal 7 - 7:30 since he was being a klutz. A sure sign he is tired. What does he do? Nurses for 15 min - wide awake. Not a sign of a droopy eyelid in sight. So I put him in his crib figuring he’ll drop off like he normally does. Does he? NO! He plays, he coos, he says “bubbles” (newly learned this week), he cries, he throws himself around and then quiet (an hour later)! “Finally”, I’m thinking. I check the video monitor and …. the little stinkpot was pulling his dirty clothes from his hamper through the slats on his crib and playing with them. Oy vee!

(one long non-grammatical paragraph later) and I go in there, retrieve the clothes, nurse him again and wait! just wait - a droopy eyelid. I put him back in his crib and he screams for the next 2 min and bam! asleep.

I hate days like this. Hopefully he sleeps really well tonite cause I definitely need it.

I don’t even recall how I wound up on this website but several companies have joined together to create Wee Generation and is in the process of creating a cradle-to-cradle certified diaper bag. You can even help design it! I added my name to the wait list and can’t wait to see what it looks like and how much it will cost. The first release of the bag has been reported to be “towards the end of 2007″. Maybe it’ll be here in time for Christmas!

If your kids are running around in the current craze of crazy looking footwear aka crocs make sure you pay special attention to them on escalators. Reports have been coming out from around the world that people are getting caught in escalators thanks to the shoes super grippy-ness. Here’s the CNN report to learn more - http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/09/17/crocs.escalators.ap/index.html

a boy!! As if there aren’t enough boys in our BBC group Allison is now adding another one. Luckily for her most of us saved the kid’s outgrown clothes so she will be loaded down with stuff. Congrats!

Biglots has a large selection of gerber organic, graduates, etc at the moment according to one forum poster. I’ll be going to my local one tomorrow to confirm and buy the joint out