The strangulation death of an infant in a "Sesame Beginnings" Travel Play Yard led the privately-held baby products giant Kolcraft, which brings in estimated revenues of $33 million a year, to recall nearly half a million play yards under several brands in September 2007.

As it turns out, however, a changing table with a dangling strap wasn't all that was wrong with Kolcraft's playpens. Three hundred and twenty-seven failure reports and 21 injuries later, the CPSC has issued a recall of 984,000 Kolcraft play yards due to a failure of its side wall to latch, causing it to collapse when leaned on by a child inside. This near-million-unit recall includes those previously recalled for the strangulation hazard.

The remedy offered by Kolcraft for both the strangulation hazard and the newly announced fall hazard are repair kits. Kolcraft has a retrofit request form on their website, or you can call them at (888) 655-8484.

The difficulty of making recalls by companies like Kolcraft effective is that their products are marketed under so many different names - in this case, Kolcraft, Carter’s, Sesame Street, Jeep, Contours, Care Bear and Eric Carle. I encourage you to check not only your own play yard but those of other caregivers in your life, and send links to friends who have young children or are expecting.

Kolcraft's history with child safety is a checkered one. Its founder, Leo Koltun, made his name in the late 1940s by inventing the bumper pad, an innovation which probably made sense in an era before ASTM crib standards but have offered greater risks than benefits since the mid-1980s. (ZRecs advises against the use of crib and play yard bumpers, which have been identified as entrapment, suffocation, and possible SIDS hazards by the Journal of Pediatrics and many others.) The company has had several recalls since the CPSC began publishing recall information online, including a 1993 recall of Preskool-branded portable cribs due to a problem that sounds eerily similar to the one that triggered yesterday's recall: a collapsing side, which in that case created a "V"-shaped hinge that led to the entrapment and suffocation deaths of three infants in the four years it was on the market.

Below is a graphic showing all 19 of the Kolcraft play yard designs being recalled with this notice. You can see bigger images of each one in the CPSC's recall notice.


Recalled models:

• Kolcraft Travelin’ Tot


• Kolcraft Travelin’ Tot LTD


• Kolcraft Travelin’ Tot 2-in-1


• Kolcraft Travelin’ Tot 3-in-1


• Kolcraft Travelin’ Tot 4-in-1


• Carter’s Lennon Travelin’ Tot


• EMU Carter’s Travelin’ Tot


• Carter’s Travelin’ Tot


• “Sesame Beginnings” 2-in-1 Play Yard


• Sesame Travelin’ Tot VT


• Jeep Sahara, Jeep Sahara SE Play Yard


• Jeep Sahara Limited Play Yard


• Jeep Sahara XT Play Yard


• Jeep Sahara Limited SE Play Yard


• Jeep Sahara Limited XT Play Yard


• Contours 2-in-1 Travel Playyard


• Contours 3-in-1 Play Yard


• Contours Deluxe Play Yard


• Contours Travel Play Yard


• Care Bear Play Yard


• Eric Carle Play Yard with Activity Gym

Model numbers: 18709-BH, 18709T-BH, 18709T-DV, 18709-NF, 18709T-NF, 18710-BE, 18711T-BD, 18711T-BE, 18713T-LB, 18714T-WD, 18714-WD, 18724T-SQ, 18725-CG, 18725T-FF, 18730T-BZ, 18730T-HJ,18731- DV, 18731T-BZ, 18733-CU, 18733T-CU, 18734T-DV, 18744-BL, 18751T-BZ, 18751T-CU,18751-DV,18751T-DV, 18910-MQ, 18910T-EB, 18910T-LN,18920D-OW,18920-OW, 18925-GS, 18925-LA, 18931-EZ, 18931T-DV, 18931T-PV, 18933T-CU, 18934-SW, 18934-DV, 18935T-UT, 18935-CH, 18942-EC, 18945T-CT, 18945T-ER, 18946-AR, 18950-GV, 18950T-GV, 18951T-DV, 18951T-GS, 18951T-MO,18960-KK, 18960T-PP, 18961-AR, 18961T-AR, 18961-CT, 18961T-CT, 18961-PP, 18961T-GF, 18961T-RV, 18962-AX, 18962T-FZ, 18962-OQ, 18962T-ZT, KP001-BND, KP013-BPA, KP013-HGF, KP013-JFR, KP013-NRB, KP013-PPL, KP014-JGY, KP015-BPA, KP015-JFR, KP016-OW, KP027-JGX, 18740-UE, 18740T-UE, 18736T-LJ, 18737-LJ, 18737T-LJ, 18726-KA, 18726T-HM, 22361-VT, SP001-SBK, SP004-SBK, 55200-JC, 55220-JC, 55225-JC, 55225T-JC, 55235-JC, 55237-JQ, 55237T-JQ, 55237-XC, 55237-XV, 55237T-XB, 55770-XA, 55770-XI, 55772-XE, 55773-XY, JP002-XSP, 18604-OC, ZP001-MON, ZP001-MYS, ZP003-MAL, ZP004-MAL, 18960-KK, 18763-EK, 18763T-EK