HIGHCHAIR AND STROLLER. IF YOU HAVE EITHER, CHECK THIS OUT AND GET THESE FIXED OR GET ANOTHER ONE!!
Sweetpea Pond
Thursday, March 18, 2010
Wednesday, March 17, 2010
SPRING BREAK
WHAT TO DO WITH THE KIDS FOR SPRING BREAK?? PLAY GAMES. TAKE THEM OUTSIDE IF IT'S NICE WHERE U R. HAVE FUN!! MAKE THINGS, GET ALONG!! THEY NEED SOMETHING TO DO!!
Sweetpea Pond
Sweetpea Pond
Sunday, March 14, 2010
Here's a report on the recalled baby slings
CPSC Warns of Baby Sling Dangers
Agency Addresses Apparent Suffocation Danger; Other Types of Serious Injuries Reported
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Baby slings are the subject of concern on the part of the Consumer Product safety Commission and child safety advocates. (AP)
Stories
Gov't: Baby Slings Can Cause Suffocation
(CBS) The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning Friday that baby slings -- which parents put around their necks to carry their babies -- may pose a risk of suffocation.
In researching incident reports from the past 20 years, the CPSC identified and is investigating at least 14 deaths associated with sling-style infant carriers, including three in 2009. Twelve of the deaths involved babies younger than four months of age.
Don Mays, of Consumer Reports, explains that the potential hazards of putting small babies -- especially newborns -- into bag-style slings arise because, "A very young infant's head will be folded forward. That cuts off the airway, and they essentially suffocate. Another problem could be if the baby's head could be nestled up against the carrier's body."
The CPSC said many of the babies who died in slings were either a low birth weight twin, were born prematurely, or had breathing issues such as a cold. Therefore, it urged parents of preemies, twins, babies in fragile health and those with low weight to use extra care and consult their pediatricians about using slings.
Between 2006 and 2008, sales for soft infant carriers rose 43 percent, to more than $21 million, reports CBS News Correspondent Elaine Quijano, but there are no federal safety standards covering sling-type carriers.
"Don't use slings at all," Mays recommends. "There are safer ways of carrying your baby than in a sling."
A lesson that will always haunt Lisa Cochran, whose week-old infant, Derrik, suddenly stopped breathing as he rested quietly against her in May in a bag-style sling, made by Infantino. He died.
"(Such devices were) highly recommended -- especially for breast-feeding mothers and mothers in general. … (They) kept (the infants) close to your heart, so they could hear your heart beat."
Cochran, of Keizer, Ore., and who is pregnant again, says, "I, as a first-time mom, had no clue I could walk into a store and pick something off the shelf that wasn't safe."
She is suing the Infantino, which issued a statement to CBS News saying, "While Infantino believes that its Slingrider baby sling is a safe product, the company is working with the CPSC to address the agency's concerns and those of any parents and caregivers."
While Friday's CPSC warning will address the suffocation danger, Consumer Reports says at least 37 other children have suffered serious injuries, including skull fractures, while being carried in or falling out of baby slings. That led to a recall in 2007.
Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger, a non-profit group working on product safety issues, told co-anchor Erica Hill the CPSC needs to "look closely" at the carriers in which the deaths occurred to see if "there does need to be a specific recall of specific products, but the warning, additional instructions and a standard, frankly, for these products is what's needed to make sure that … when you go to the store to buy something, you know that someone has already made sure that it's going to be safe for your child."
"It should be noted that women have been using slings for centuries safely to carry their babies. Obviously, the ones involved in the deaths, I think people should wait to hear the CPSC's warning to see if there's anymore specific information. But with these products, you need to make sure you're using one that's been recommended to you, that they have adequate safety information, either on their Web site or that comes with the product, and that you check with someone and that you see what your baby's position is in it at all times, not just when you first put them in it, to make sure that it's going to be something that will keep them in a safe position."
Cowles suggested that parents suggest slings with their doctors, but it "certainly would not hurt to wait" to use them until a baby is several weeks old and has more control of his or her head.
from cbs news
Agency Addresses Apparent Suffocation Danger; Other Types of Serious Injuries Reported
Font size Print E-mail Share 12 Comments
Like this Story? Share it:
Share On Facebook
Baby slings are the subject of concern on the part of the Consumer Product safety Commission and child safety advocates. (AP)
Stories
Gov't: Baby Slings Can Cause Suffocation
(CBS) The Consumer Product Safety Commission issued a warning Friday that baby slings -- which parents put around their necks to carry their babies -- may pose a risk of suffocation.
In researching incident reports from the past 20 years, the CPSC identified and is investigating at least 14 deaths associated with sling-style infant carriers, including three in 2009. Twelve of the deaths involved babies younger than four months of age.
Don Mays, of Consumer Reports, explains that the potential hazards of putting small babies -- especially newborns -- into bag-style slings arise because, "A very young infant's head will be folded forward. That cuts off the airway, and they essentially suffocate. Another problem could be if the baby's head could be nestled up against the carrier's body."
The CPSC said many of the babies who died in slings were either a low birth weight twin, were born prematurely, or had breathing issues such as a cold. Therefore, it urged parents of preemies, twins, babies in fragile health and those with low weight to use extra care and consult their pediatricians about using slings.
Between 2006 and 2008, sales for soft infant carriers rose 43 percent, to more than $21 million, reports CBS News Correspondent Elaine Quijano, but there are no federal safety standards covering sling-type carriers.
"Don't use slings at all," Mays recommends. "There are safer ways of carrying your baby than in a sling."
A lesson that will always haunt Lisa Cochran, whose week-old infant, Derrik, suddenly stopped breathing as he rested quietly against her in May in a bag-style sling, made by Infantino. He died.
"(Such devices were) highly recommended -- especially for breast-feeding mothers and mothers in general. … (They) kept (the infants) close to your heart, so they could hear your heart beat."
Cochran, of Keizer, Ore., and who is pregnant again, says, "I, as a first-time mom, had no clue I could walk into a store and pick something off the shelf that wasn't safe."
She is suing the Infantino, which issued a statement to CBS News saying, "While Infantino believes that its Slingrider baby sling is a safe product, the company is working with the CPSC to address the agency's concerns and those of any parents and caregivers."
While Friday's CPSC warning will address the suffocation danger, Consumer Reports says at least 37 other children have suffered serious injuries, including skull fractures, while being carried in or falling out of baby slings. That led to a recall in 2007.
Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids in Danger, a non-profit group working on product safety issues, told co-anchor Erica Hill the CPSC needs to "look closely" at the carriers in which the deaths occurred to see if "there does need to be a specific recall of specific products, but the warning, additional instructions and a standard, frankly, for these products is what's needed to make sure that … when you go to the store to buy something, you know that someone has already made sure that it's going to be safe for your child."
"It should be noted that women have been using slings for centuries safely to carry their babies. Obviously, the ones involved in the deaths, I think people should wait to hear the CPSC's warning to see if there's anymore specific information. But with these products, you need to make sure you're using one that's been recommended to you, that they have adequate safety information, either on their Web site or that comes with the product, and that you check with someone and that you see what your baby's position is in it at all times, not just when you first put them in it, to make sure that it's going to be something that will keep them in a safe position."
Cowles suggested that parents suggest slings with their doctors, but it "certainly would not hurt to wait" to use them until a baby is several weeks old and has more control of his or her head.
from cbs news
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
CADMIUM IN CHILDREN'S TOYS AND JEWELRY
HONG KONG — China's product safety agency will look into reports that dangerous levels of cadmium are being used in exports of children's jewelry, a Chinese official said Tuesday following growing concern in the United States about the products.
Attending a toy safety conference in Hong Kong, the official said his agency just learned of findings in an Associated Press investigation published Sunday.
"We just heard about this, and we will investigate," said Wang Xin, a director general for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Though Wang does not have the authority to order a full-bore inquiry, his comments were the government's first on the matter and show China's nervousness about potential troubles in the U.S., the biggest Chinese export market.
Also Tuesday, an international chain store said it will no longer sell a charm bracelet that lab testing reported by the AP showed was laden with toxic cadmium.
In a statement, Claire's said it has no reason to believe that the product is unsafe, but is removing it "out of an abundance of caution."
Charms on the "Best Friends" bracelet contained 89% and 91% cadmium, according to testing organized by AP, and shed alarming amounts in a procedure that looks at how much cadmium children might be exposed to.
On Monday, retail giant Walmart pulled products cited in the AP report from its stores in the U.S. The attorney general of Connecticut promised to investigate suspect costume jewelry. A New York state legislator called for a ban on the sale of children's jewelry with cadmium in the state. The top U.S. consumer safety regulator warned Asian manufacturers that cadmium and other toxins must be kept out of children's charm bracelets, pendants and other baubles.
RELATED: Wal-Mart to close 10 Sam's Club stores
Lab tests conducted for the AP on 103 pieces of low-priced children's jewelry on sale in the U.S. found 12 items with elevated levels of cadmium, which can hinder brain development in young children, according to recent research, and is known to cause cancer.
Twelve items had cadmium levels of at least 10% by weight. One piece had 91%, and others contained more than 80%. The government has no restrictions on cadmium in jewelry.
The findings of cadmium contamination come on the heels of a string of product quality scandals in 2007 that caused Congress in 2008 to ban toys and other kids products that contain lead — another dangerous and once commonly used material. Cadmium is even more harmful.
A soft, whitish metal that occurs naturally in soil, cadmium is perhaps best known as half of rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries, but also is used in pigments, electroplating and plastic. Low-cost jewelry makers find cadmium attractive because it is cheap and easy to work with.
Melissa Hill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores, called the AP findings "troubling." She said the company, which is the world's largest retailer, has a special responsibility "to take swift action, and we are doing so."
In taped remarks delivered at the toy safety conference in Hong Kong, the chairwoman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission urged other countries to ensure that manufacturers do not substitute cadmium, antimony or barium in place of lead in children's products.
"All of us should be committed to keeping hazardous or toxic levels of heavy metals out of ... toys and children's products," Inez Tenenbaum said in a transcript of the remarks.
Tenenbaum singled out cadmium for special vigilance and said: "Voluntary efforts will only take us so far."
The commission immediately said it was opening an investigation into the AP's findings, promising to "take action as quickly as possible to protect the safety of children."
Stung by the product scandals earlier this decade, toy manufacturers in Hong Kong said they understood why the U.S. would tighten regulations further.
Vincent Tan, director for compliance at the Jetta Co., a toy manufacturer, said he would support a cadmium ban "if scientific evidence supports that it is leaching and causing hazards for children."
Companies like Jetta — which has made electronic and plastic toys for U.S. companies like Hasbro and Mattel but does not produce children's jewelry — do not use cadmium in paint. But the metal may be present in alloys it uses.
Children can be exposed by sucking or biting such toys and jewelry. But without direct exposure, most people do not experience cadmium's worst effects: cancer, kidneys that leak vital protein and bones that spontaneously snap.
The worrisome results came in tests of bracelet charms sold at Walmart stores, at the jewelry chain Claire's and at a Dollar N More store. High amounts of cadmium also were detected in "The Princess and The Frog" movie-themed pendants.
U.S.-based trade groups, as well as distributors and sellers of the jewelry containing cadmium, said their products meet safety standards. Cadmium is regulated in painted toys but not in jewelry.
A cadmium specialist with the Beijing office of Asian Metal Ltd., a market research and consultancy firm, said products with cadmium are normally directed to the Chinese domestic market.
A 2008 law imposed limits on lead in children's products and sent factories rushing for substitutes. About the same time, cadmium prices dropped, in part because nickel-cadmium batteries are swiftly being replaced with newer designs.
The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate@ap.org.
Contributing: Associated Press writers Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles, Jeff Donn in Boston, Stephen Singer in Hartford, Conn., and Rik Stevens in Albany, N.Y.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
READ THIS ABOUT LEAD IN TOYS AND JEWELRY FOR CHILDREN
Sweetpea Pond
Attending a toy safety conference in Hong Kong, the official said his agency just learned of findings in an Associated Press investigation published Sunday.
"We just heard about this, and we will investigate," said Wang Xin, a director general for the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine.
Though Wang does not have the authority to order a full-bore inquiry, his comments were the government's first on the matter and show China's nervousness about potential troubles in the U.S., the biggest Chinese export market.
Also Tuesday, an international chain store said it will no longer sell a charm bracelet that lab testing reported by the AP showed was laden with toxic cadmium.
In a statement, Claire's said it has no reason to believe that the product is unsafe, but is removing it "out of an abundance of caution."
Charms on the "Best Friends" bracelet contained 89% and 91% cadmium, according to testing organized by AP, and shed alarming amounts in a procedure that looks at how much cadmium children might be exposed to.
On Monday, retail giant Walmart pulled products cited in the AP report from its stores in the U.S. The attorney general of Connecticut promised to investigate suspect costume jewelry. A New York state legislator called for a ban on the sale of children's jewelry with cadmium in the state. The top U.S. consumer safety regulator warned Asian manufacturers that cadmium and other toxins must be kept out of children's charm bracelets, pendants and other baubles.
RELATED: Wal-Mart to close 10 Sam's Club stores
Lab tests conducted for the AP on 103 pieces of low-priced children's jewelry on sale in the U.S. found 12 items with elevated levels of cadmium, which can hinder brain development in young children, according to recent research, and is known to cause cancer.
Twelve items had cadmium levels of at least 10% by weight. One piece had 91%, and others contained more than 80%. The government has no restrictions on cadmium in jewelry.
The findings of cadmium contamination come on the heels of a string of product quality scandals in 2007 that caused Congress in 2008 to ban toys and other kids products that contain lead — another dangerous and once commonly used material. Cadmium is even more harmful.
A soft, whitish metal that occurs naturally in soil, cadmium is perhaps best known as half of rechargeable nickel-cadmium batteries, but also is used in pigments, electroplating and plastic. Low-cost jewelry makers find cadmium attractive because it is cheap and easy to work with.
Melissa Hill, a spokeswoman for Wal-Mart Stores, called the AP findings "troubling." She said the company, which is the world's largest retailer, has a special responsibility "to take swift action, and we are doing so."
In taped remarks delivered at the toy safety conference in Hong Kong, the chairwoman of the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission urged other countries to ensure that manufacturers do not substitute cadmium, antimony or barium in place of lead in children's products.
"All of us should be committed to keeping hazardous or toxic levels of heavy metals out of ... toys and children's products," Inez Tenenbaum said in a transcript of the remarks.
Tenenbaum singled out cadmium for special vigilance and said: "Voluntary efforts will only take us so far."
The commission immediately said it was opening an investigation into the AP's findings, promising to "take action as quickly as possible to protect the safety of children."
Stung by the product scandals earlier this decade, toy manufacturers in Hong Kong said they understood why the U.S. would tighten regulations further.
Vincent Tan, director for compliance at the Jetta Co., a toy manufacturer, said he would support a cadmium ban "if scientific evidence supports that it is leaching and causing hazards for children."
Companies like Jetta — which has made electronic and plastic toys for U.S. companies like Hasbro and Mattel but does not produce children's jewelry — do not use cadmium in paint. But the metal may be present in alloys it uses.
Children can be exposed by sucking or biting such toys and jewelry. But without direct exposure, most people do not experience cadmium's worst effects: cancer, kidneys that leak vital protein and bones that spontaneously snap.
The worrisome results came in tests of bracelet charms sold at Walmart stores, at the jewelry chain Claire's and at a Dollar N More store. High amounts of cadmium also were detected in "The Princess and The Frog" movie-themed pendants.
U.S.-based trade groups, as well as distributors and sellers of the jewelry containing cadmium, said their products meet safety standards. Cadmium is regulated in painted toys but not in jewelry.
A cadmium specialist with the Beijing office of Asian Metal Ltd., a market research and consultancy firm, said products with cadmium are normally directed to the Chinese domestic market.
A 2008 law imposed limits on lead in children's products and sent factories rushing for substitutes. About the same time, cadmium prices dropped, in part because nickel-cadmium batteries are swiftly being replaced with newer designs.
The AP National Investigative Team can be reached at investigate@ap.org.
Contributing: Associated Press writers Justin Pritchard in Los Angeles, Jeff Donn in Boston, Stephen Singer in Hartford, Conn., and Rik Stevens in Albany, N.Y.
Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
READ THIS ABOUT LEAD IN TOYS AND JEWELRY FOR CHILDREN
Sweetpea Pond
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