3 Defective Baby Products to Avoid

The baby care market is a $16.78 billion industry. Fisher-Price, Funskool, Disney, and other lucrative companies are consistently manufacturing new infant products to drive industry growth. But just because a product is sold by an established brand name doesn’t mean it’s safe for your child. In fact, some of the most popular products on the market today pose serious health and safety risks to American infants and toddlers.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is responsible for monitoring baby products and banning items that cause significant injuries to children. However, scores of new products are recalled each year, and you don’t want your child to be the victim of corporate greed and negligence.

There are three inherently dangerous products you must keep away from your baby:

1. Bedding products: The purpose of bedding products is to keep an infant safe and comfortable while they are sleeping. However, the following products have been linked to infant death – including SIDS – and devastating injuries.
   • Drop-side cribs
   • Crib tents
   • Crib bumpers
   • Sleep positioners
   • Bedside sleepers
2. Carrying products: There are countless carrying products being sold in baby stores across the country. However, one of the most popular products, sling carriers, can be extremely dangerous for infants. If a child falls out of a sling carrier, they can sustain serious injuries, including traumatic brain injury, skull fractures, broken bones, etc. Infants can also suffer positional asphyxia by pressing against their parent. For this reason, the CPSC advises parents to use strollers, soft front carriers, and backpack carriers instead.
   • Sling carriers
3. Seating products: The following seating products have been known to tip over and cause harm to children. Infant bath seats, for example, have been responsible for nearly 200 drowning deaths. Likewise, the CPSC estimates that over 4,000 children are injured by jumpers, walkers, and stationary exercisers each year.
   • Infant bath seats
   • Bumbo seats
   • Walkers

Manufacturers have a legal obligation to design and market products that are both safe and functional. That said, some baby products are not inherently dangerous unless they have been misused or altered. For this reason and more, you need to discuss your legal options with a qualified product liability attorney before taking legal action.

Pursuing Damages in a Defective Product Case

Florida imposes strict legal penalties on any company that knowingly sells hazardous and defective products. Of course, this little detail hasn’t stopped companies from releasing questionable and untested products in the name of profit.

There have been many defective infant and child product recalls in 2019, including:

• Model Boom09 baby bed rails (Hot Mom)
• Children’s Power Wheels Barbie Dream Campers (Fisher-Price)
• Baby Rattle Socks (Midwest-CBK)
• Little Experimenter Children’s Globes (Bulk Unlimited Corp.)
• Rock ‘n Play Sleepers (Fisher-Price)
• Rocking Sleepers (Kids II)
• Playground Wooden Toy Vehicles (Bullseye and Target)
• Ultra-Lite Day & Night Play Yards (Fisher-Price)
• Eddie Bauer and Soothe Bassinet (Dorel Juvenile Group USA)
• Disney Baby Doze and Dream Bassinet (Disney and Dorel Juvenile Group USA)
• Infant Steps Bouncers (Stokke)
• Infant head and neck support accessories (The Boppy Company)
• Loviebee children’s security blankets (Swaddle Bee)
• Forky 11” plush toy (Disney)
• Children’s chairs and stools (RH)
• Beamz Light Up Toy Sword (Amazon and GMG)

If a dangerous product has harmed your child, you may have grounds to file a product liability claim against multiple parties, including the manufacturer, the retailer, and the designing or engineering firm. To safeguard your claim, you need to keep the remnants of the defective product, take pictures of your child’s injuries, and request a copy of your child’s updated medical record. It’s also important that you take notes about the incident while it’s still fresh in your mind.

Has Your Child Been Harmed by a Dangerous Product?

Contact the product liability lawyers at The Pittman Firm, P.A. if your child has been injured or killed while using a defective or dangerous product. We can investigate the item in question, identify the liable parties, and determine if the unsafe quality is due to a design, manufacturing, and/or marketing error. With this evidence, we can construct a litigation strategy that proves three critical facts: your infant used the item as the manufacturer intended; your infant suffered physical injuries that resulted in monetary losses; the dangerous product is directly responsible for these injuries and financial losses. With our guidance, you can recover monetary damages that account for your child’s existing and potential injury-related expenses.

Contact The Pittman Firm, P.A.at (850) 764-0383 to arrange a free consultation today.