I’ve documented quite a few troubling CPSC recalls on the baby blog through the years, but this could be the first time that I’ve seen products designed to keep children safe being recalled. In total, over 45,000 of these dangerous Prime-Line products have been sold in

hardware stores across the country. Please take a moment to ensure that you aren’t using one of these recalled “safety” products.

• Child Safety Latches and Outlet Covers Recalled by Prime-Line: Screw breaks can allow unintended access. -> (full product recall details here)

• Prime-Line Products Recalls Child Bathtub Non-Slip Pads: Recalled due to fall hazard. -> (full product recall details here)

Visit each recall’s link (above) for detailed product information including “sell dates”, distributors, and model numbers.

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

Do you ever find yourself wondering about the safety of meat or produce purchased at the store? One day we’re cautioned about eggs and the next we are told to check our potentially deadly celery to ensure it’s not from a particular processing plant.  Wouldn’t it

be nice if we could scan the produce in your refrigerator to check it’s history, or better yet…scan it at the store before we bought it? Thanks to a new service HarvestMark and forward-thinking retailers like Kroger, you’ll soon be able to trace produce all the way back to the farm! Here’s how it works:

1. Packed: HarvestMark stickers are placed on each piece of produce. Important information like the farm’s location and harvest date is saved to code on the sticker before leaving the farm.
2. Shipped: Products are shipped from farms and processing plants to retailers around the world.
3. Customer Scanned: iPhone users download a free app and scan any product they see with a HarvestMark logo, or type the provided code at the HavestMark website when they get home.

HarvestMark is currently being advertised as an easy way to trace a food’s origination, check for potential recalls, and provide recipe ideas, but I could see this kind of technology going a lot further. What parent wouldn’t also want to know about the food’s nutritional information, or if it was grown with pesticides?

HarvestMark’s food tracing technology is still early in development, but perhaps they’ll extend the same tracking system to regularly recalled products like strollers and cribs in the near future as well. What do you think parents, would your family find a food/product tracing system like HarvestMark useful?

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

> tip thanks to Springwise!

I don’t normally post recalls for products with limited regional distribution, but technically this is a “CPSC warning” and not a standard recall. You are probably wondering what the difference is, and I’ll admit that I’m a little confused myself. Apparently, 16,500 “My Baby Soother” pacifiers distributed by T & L Trading Corp of Brooklyn, NY failed to meet federal

safety standards. The CPSC says that the nipples can easily separate from the base posing a choking hazard. When asked to recall the dangerous products T & L Trading Corp said “fugetaboutit“.

I kid you not…the distributor actually refused to recall the dangerous pacifiers sold throughout discount stores, grocery stores, and delis in Bronx, Brooklyn, Broadway, and Coney Island from August 2007 through July 2009 for around $1.00. The CPSC’s description and directions:

“The “My Baby Soother” pacifier has a ring-shaped handle and a blue, pink, red, white or yellow heart-shaped mouth guard with two ventilation holes. The nipple is made of either silicon or latex. The pacifier package has the words “My Baby Soother” printed on the top and a picture of an infant on the background.

Distributors and retailers who purchased the “My Baby Soother” pacifiers from T & L Trading should immediately stop distributing the pacifier and call CPSC at (800) 638-2772. Consumers should immediately take the recalled pacifiers away from infants and toddlers and discard them.“

It’s anyone’s guess what the distributors of these pacifiers are thinking, but I think it’s safe to say that their career in the baby business (and any other business) will soon be over.

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

> see full warning on CPSC’s website

Plum Organics voluntarily recalled a small number of 4.22 oz Apple and Carrot Baby Food in Portable Pouches sold individually at Toys-R-Us and Babies-R-Us locations nationwide.  Please return any package of Plum Organics Apple and Carrot baby food with the numbers “890180001221” located at the bottom of the package. A mixing error was

blamed for the recall (increasing the risk of botulism), but no illnesses were reported at the time this post was released.

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

This post’s title may seem obvious to many of you, but a study released this morning by AAP’s Pediatrics (download study PDF) shows that many major magazines are confusing the issue with ads depicting unsafe infant sleeping positions and unsafe sleeping environments. The study included 391 pictures from 28 major magazines (5 million +
circulation to qualify as “major”) marketed to women of childbearing age of 20-40 years old showed:

• More than one third of pictures of sleeping infants in magazines geared toward childbearing women demonstrated infants in an inappropriate sleep position.

• Two thirds of pictures of infant sleep environments were not consistent with AAP recommendations.

• Messages in the media that are inconsistent with health care messages create confusion and misinformation about infant sleep safety and may lead inadvertently to unsafe practices.

Have you noticed advertisements showing babies sleeping in unsafe positions, or sleeping in cribs with dangerous plush bedding? If so, share it with us by clicking on the bubble to open the comment box below. I’d be interested to see examples online as well, so feel free to leave a related link if you find one. I honestly haven’t noticed this, but I’ll certainly keep an eye open for it now that the AAP has put this on the radar.

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

I received an FDA recall warning for a line of water-based face paints today that I thought everyone might be interested to know about it. Many children have experienced rashes, burning sensations, and swelling where the paints were applied, so you may want to review

the full listing if the package above looks familiar:

(fda.gov listing: 5.12.09) The Food and Drug Administration is advising consumers to stop using certain cosmetic “Face Paint” items labeled as distributed by Oriental Trading Co., Omaha, Neb., due to adverse event reports of skin reactions in children. These items were distributed nationwide.

The FDA has learned of a cluster of adverse events in children exposed to various colors of the face paint. All exposures occurred on the same day at an organized event and included rashes, itchiness, burning sensation, and swelling where the face paints were applied. Significant microbial contamination was indicated in most of the products in testing by an FDA laboratory.

The following Face Paints manufactured by Shanghai Color Art Stationery Company Limited, Shanghai, China, are being voluntarily recalled by Fun Express Inc., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Oriental Trading Co.:

Blue (UPC = 8 8760048110 7), Purple (UPC = 8 8760048112 1), RedOrange (UPC = 8 8760048116 9), BlackGreen (UPC = 8 8760048120 6) (UPC = 8 8760048114 5), (UPC = 8 8760048118 3),

To report an adverse event related to the recalled face paints, visit the FDA’s reporting page or call them at 1-800-FDA-1088.

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

The BubLuv SIDS (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome) monitoring device is a concept design by Queensland University of Technology student Michael Geedrick that we’re all hoping makes it out onto the market one day soon. When the baby sleeps, the BubLuv reads her carbon dioxide and oxygen concentrations using a co-oximeter in the ankle bracelet and

alerts parents when dangerous situations arise by transmitting warning signals to a bedside monitor. 

Perhaps the BubLuv will prove to be the first step towards similar “smart cribs” and related sleeping garments one day as well. I’ll keep an eye on BubLuv developments and will be sure to let you know if/when they are available for purchase.

Have fun and stay healthy,

Dr.MOZ

> thanks to Tuvie!

The weather has been insane in the US this week with parts of the Midwest and Northeast experiencing some of the coldest temperatures in the last eight years. By “cold” I mean crazy-cold temperatures with wind chill in Massena, NY hitting 33 below zero during the night and a record low of 19 below zero in Flint, MI.

If you have friends or neighbors that live alone, this is a great time to check-up on them to make sure they are doing well. This is especially true for our friends in Maine who are seeing temperatures as low as 40 degrees below zero during the night.

Stay warm everyone!
Dr.MOZ

> temps thanks to AP

Safe Kids USA

While you are childproofing your own home, don’t forget to focus on other family members’ homes as well. Over 20 percent of prescription drugs ingested by toddlers under 5 belong to people that don’t live with the children, so make sure that the babysitters and grandparents are prepared too.

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ

(cabinet thanks to Design Mom)

Keeping up-to-date with the incredible number of baby product and toy recall warnings is proving to be an impossible task for parents these days, so I decided to create a dedicated recall page to help organize the information into a single page that could be easily scanned. Parents can now access a single recall page with the latest CPSC warnings by clicking on the “Recalls” button at the top of the screen. Better yet, bookmark the recall page by clicking the “Ctrl” and the “D” button at the same time to save it to your favorites. Product recalls will also be highlighted by product name and announcement date in the sidebar at the right of the screen to let you know that new warnings have been released.

Subscribers will also receive product recall updates in Dr.MOZ’s future newsletters, so why not join? To join our newsletter (1) type your email address in the text box on the right, and (2) click the “Add Me Dr.MOZ!” button to receive our free newsletter. Not only will you receive the monthly collection of CPSC recalls, but you’ll also get the latest baby trends, parenting tips, and giveaway alerts from your favorite moose M.D.!

Have fun and stay healthy,
Dr.MOZ