Bumbo baby seats: unsafe at any height
If you own a Bumbo Baby Seat, those iconic round seats with horseshoe-shaped leg openings, the company has a message for you: Stop using them. They鈥檙e potentially dangerous.
On Wednesday, Bumbo International issued a recall for all its baby seats sold in the United States, 4 million units in all. That鈥檚 one of the larger recalls of children鈥檚 products and represents the second time that the company and federal regulators have tried to fix a recurring problem:听Babies can wiggle out of the seats, fall, and injure themselves, even when the seats are used on the floor, as recommended.
Owners of the seats should contact the company for a free repair kit, which includes a seatbelt and anchors to attach the belt to the seat. Consumers can call the company toll-free (866-898-4999) or visit a special where owners can order the repair kit.
Expect the kit to arrive in two to three weeks. There鈥檚 showing how to install the safety belt. Until the fix is made, parents should not use the baby seat, the company warns.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has been warning parents for years not to place the Bumbo seat on tables, counters, or other raised surfaces. In 2007, the company issued a recall for the seats to add new labels warning against using them on raised surfaces. At the time, the CPSC had 28 reports of young children falling out of the seats, including three skull fractures.
But even after the warnings, the agency and South Africa-based Bumbo kept getting complaints 鈥� at least 50 of them, 19 of which resulted in reports of skull fractures. The continued accidents suggested that parents weren鈥檛 heeding the warning labels.
Of even more concern, the agency and Bumbo became aware of 34 other reports where babies injured themselves after a fall from a Bumbo seat placed on the floor or at an unknown elevation. Two of those incidents involved skull fractures.
As the CPSC debated what to do, 鈥渢hat [report] is something that made a very large difference, says Alex Filip, a CPSC spokesman. He says he doesn鈥檛 know when the agency became aware of those injuries. Bumbo says in an e-mail that it is 鈥渦nable to say鈥� how it became aware of them.
In November 2011, the CPSC issued , pointing out the reports of floor injuries. It also worked with the company on a remedy: the seatbelt fix that was announced Monday, nine months after the November warning.
Nine months is not speedy in terms of remedies, especially in the case of a children鈥檚 product.
But by all accounts, Bumbo has worked closely with the CPSC to come up with a fix, says Mike Rozembajgier,听vice president of recalls for听Stericycle听ExpertRecall,听a recall-management firm based in听. 鈥淪peed is a necessary component鈥� of responding to consumer complaints, especially when children are involved. But it鈥檚 also important that companies get the fix right, he adds.
In hindsight, the 2007 recall and the placement of warning labels didn鈥檛 work. Having a second recall on the same product is a blow to the Bumbo brand, but not necessarily a fatal one.
鈥淐ompanies can absolutely recover鈥� from recalls, Mr. Rozembajgier says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 how they handle these challenges that will determine the road ahead.鈥�
The company says it will continue selling the Bumbo Baby Seat 鈥� with safety belts.
