My stars! They're bright, colorful, fun and possibly fatal if your child should happen to choke on one of the knobs from the center of these hollow plastic Mini Stars. Though there have as yet been no injuries reported, the CPSC and Edushape have received reports about the knobs breaking off from the stars. Since this could pose a choking hazard, you should remove these toys from your young child, and contact Edushape at (800) 404-4744 for replacement or credit towards another of the company's products.
You could catch more than fly-balls with these gloves! The Mizuno Supreme Series and Ballpark Pro baseball and softball gloves were imported from Vietnam and have been found to contain several types of mold that could pose a health risk to your child or those with weakened immune systems. Mold exposure can cause serious respiratory or sinus problems, as well as allergic reactions that can manifest in a number of ways. In short--if your kid is catching with one of these gloves, it's time for a visit to your local sports store. Here is a complete list of affected model numbers, colors and date codes. The gloves were sold at Walmart and Target stores nationwide. Contact Mizuno USA at (800) 451-7913 during normal business hours for information on receiving a full refund.
Quite honestly, I'm not sure how any of my generation (or that of my mother or grandmother) managed to survive childhood, what with all the chewing we did on lead paint, sleeping on our stomachs in our cribs and dangerous blind cords hanging perilously throughout our homes. Luckily, somehow, we managed to skirt past the dangers that lurked everywhere--shoelaces that were too long, lotions designed to turn our skin into the shade of cow's hide and enough second-hand smoke in the air to halt our breathing on the spot.
The latest attempt to control the hands of fate comes in the form of a drawstring ban. If your child is between the ages of 2-12, her clothing may no longer have drawstrings at the neck or waist. This is to protect her from getting caught in a car door, strangled on a playground slide or perhaps hanging herself accidentally when she gets off an elevator. I'm writing tongue in cheek, of course, but apparently this stuff happens frequently enough (26 such freakish deaths occurred this year alone) that the government felt the need to outlaw drawstrings in children's clothing entirely. Prohibiting the import of children's clothing products with drawstrings, the CPSC reports that incidents of drawstring strangulations were reduced by 75 percent since 2004. Still, there were over 115 recalls involving drawstrings in children's clothing in the past seven years. So obviously, there are plenty of clothing manufacturing companies who have not complied with the ban.
If your child has clothing with drawstrings, the CPSC recommends removing it or replacing the item with a non-draw-string type. If you don't really feel like eliminating every hoodie in your 11 year-old's closet, however, you could just reduce the length of the string and have a talk with your child about the importance of keeping the string tied.
For more recalls and information on consumer product safety, visit the CPSC online.
