Chances are you heard about various product recalls of baby items at the end of 2009. These pertained to drop-side cribs and strollers, but the year itself had more recalls than usual. Overall, the year saw 20 percent more for baby products than in years’ past and 2500 complaints against product deficiencies – a 450-percent jump from the year before – were filed. Not all deficiencies result in a recall, however, but two significant baby products had parents nervous. But, even after these were reported to the public, one of the companies came up with a solution for fixing the defective product.
Maclaren, the brand of baby strollers, saw one million recalls of a particular umbrella model that was sold over the past ten years through a variety of retailers. Umbrella designs, in general, collapse and fold out and one part that fans out is the top of the stroller. This aspect, however, is where problems occurred with these models. When parents were folding out this cover, children in the stroller would get their finger caught and amputated. Although the company issued a repair kit to add hinges over the defective models, retailers of these models instead were taking them back and, in some cases, issuing a small refund.
Drop side cribs were the other significant recall of the year. Two million models sold over the last decade by StorkCraft were recalled, as well as those by other manufacturers. Drop side cribs allow part of the crib to be moved down for parents to easily pick up the baby. Instead, this part of the design is seen as a hazard for the child inside. If the drop side becomes loose, it can fall on the baby and result in suffocation or strangulation. Retailers, too, were taking these cribs back, as no method for modifying a drop-side design makes it safe.
