Is there anything more stressful than giving a baby their first bath? How about finding out that the baby bath you thought was going to make this whole experience easier had been recalled? Because sweet little babies were falling and fracturing their skulls? Yikes! We're there folks: popular baby bather maker Summer Infant has partnered up with the Consumer Product Safety Commission to recall more than 2 million baby baths.
At least seven children have been seriously hurt when the wire frame of the recalled bather suddenly disengaged from the side hinge, dropping the baby. In one case, the infant who fell was so badly hurt that he required intensive care for bleeding on the brain.
Want to know how to keep your baby safe? Here's everything you need to know about this recall:
1. The recalled baths include both those with two positions for baby and those with three positions. Each recalled bath has a small blue or pink base and a fabric seat with one of the following patterns: white, blue, green, yellow, and orange with fish, turtles, butterflies, frogs, flowers, and ducks.
More from The Stir: Millions of Bumbo Baby Seats Recalled: What You Need to Know
2. The recall involves the following model numbers: 08020, 08050, 08054, 08070, 08401, 08409, 08404, 08405, 08650, 08655, 08659, 08754, 08940, 08944, 38510, 38515, 18049, 18120, 18125, 18129, 18360, 18375, 18379, 18390, 38750, 38755, 18440, 18445, 18449, 18470, 18475, 18479, 18050, 08754, 18254, 18394, 18004. If your child's bather has one of these numbers, you may continue to use it as a bath. However, you should not try to carry the bath with the infant inside it.
3. These bathers were sold nationwide and in Canada from 2004 through 2011 at both online and store locations for around $15 to $30; however, retail locations will not be accepting returns or issuing refunds.
4. Contacting Summer Infant is the only means to rectify the situation. Because this is a "corrective action" recall, they will be issuing free locking straps to repair the bathers.
5. To get your free locking strap to repair the bath, call Summer Infant at 800-426-8627 between 8 a.m. and 5 p.m. ET Monday through Friday or fill out an online request form at their website.
Do you carry your baby in their bath? Has this ever been a problem for you?
Image via Consumer Product Safety Commission
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Comments 63
ALBOND86 YOU ARE 100% CORRECT ... I call it an idiot defect ... Stupid people doing stupid things, in normal every day items.. NEVER leave your child unattended in any type of water enviorment.. it takes 10seconds for a child to drown... STOP BEING STUPID PEOPLE!
Cory and Heather ** Dallas** ADDISON & Charleigh ** Baby Zoey* and our Angel Scarlett 8-4-8 to 9-30-8
Thank you Albond! I was just thinking the same thing. Its a bather! It sits in the tub! It is NOT made for carrying your baby around.
For me, a company should know that there are parents that are not going to read or follow or understand the directions on how a product should be used. If this bather wasn't safe enough to pick up the infant with it, it should have been made safer - Obviously it could have from the start, because they are sending a repair kit.
Sure, companies can't account for every misguided parents action, but I think they could do a lot better at predicting how their product will be used. It's just a way to cut costs - but at what expense?
I DID use this bather. I NEVER carried my daughter while she was laying in the bath. HOWEVER, I do recall setting her in the bath, and the hinge coming undone. It was never a serious problem, but it did make me nervous enough to be extra cautious. I only used it for a few months until she could hold her head up, and then we switched to baths in the sink.
So for the record, I dont think it is all the parents fault for the bather coming unhinged, but I do wonder how the infants were able to fall out and attain such serious injuries... As a former owner, I dont think a strap would be enough of a fix on this, there needs to be a lock method where the metal snaps into place(since that is what comes undone)
sorry, a strap wouldn't* be enough