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A warning about Pampers Dry Max diapers
By Jeremiah | May 10, 2010 | 23 comments / Join the conversation!
You may have heard over the last two weeks about Pampers diapers causing some pretty nasty rashes after the company changed both their Swaddlers and Cruisers diapers to a slimmer design. We've been doing our own research on the issue, and are working on what we hope will be the most definitive assessment of the problem you'll see unless and until the company issues a voluntary recall or offers some form of consumer advisory.
[Part One of our three-part series on Pampers Dry Max is now online.]
For the moment, however, the steady stream of new accounts of children suffering from serious rashes is urging us to publish a few notes now.
First, we have some frank advice. If you are looking for a diaper brand for a new baby, we'd advise you to try an alternative to Pampers Swaddlers or Cruisers for the time being. Additionally, if you are currently using Pampers Swaddlers or Cruisers (even if they are not promoted as "Dry Max" diapers, they probably are), we encourage you to consider an alternative, even if you have already used the new version of these diapers and your child has not had a reaction.
We say this because we have read impossible-to-verify but worrying reports of infants and toddlers wearing these reformulated diapers for weeks and only then breaking out into serious, painful diaper rashes. If these accounts are accurate, it means that children may develop rashes only after prolonged use of the new diapers, or after certain unusual conditions are met, and that it can happen even after you have tried the new diapers and think your child is fine in them. It is difficult to calculate the incidence of these rashes (if you believed Pampers' story, they are very rare) but based on the severity of the reported rashes (blisters, blood, persistence for a week or more after discontinuing use) we'd advise anyone with options to consider them. We've read from many parents that Target brand diapers are a pretty close match to the Pampers fit and function.
Second, although the CPSC has launched an investigation, that fact does not prove that there is going to be any action, and there may not be an action they are in a position to take. Recalls are voluntary and the companies that cave to pressure from the CPSC under circumstances like these are typically not those with the legal muscle of Proctor & Gamble. P&G may be using perfectly legal materials and chemicals in ways that cause an an increased incidence of severe rashes - severe enough that children are suffering and parents are angry enough to take action, but perfectly legal nonetheless.
We'll have much more to say on this matter in the next few days, including a rundown of possible sources of the problem, Proctor & Gamble's handling of the issue, and the central - yet in some ways problematic - role social media has played in this issue so far.
Find out how you can help.
[Part One of our three-part series on Pampers Dry Max is now online.]
For the moment, however, the steady stream of new accounts of children suffering from serious rashes is urging us to publish a few notes now.
First, we have some frank advice. If you are looking for a diaper brand for a new baby, we'd advise you to try an alternative to Pampers Swaddlers or Cruisers for the time being. Additionally, if you are currently using Pampers Swaddlers or Cruisers (even if they are not promoted as "Dry Max" diapers, they probably are), we encourage you to consider an alternative, even if you have already used the new version of these diapers and your child has not had a reaction.
We say this because we have read impossible-to-verify but worrying reports of infants and toddlers wearing these reformulated diapers for weeks and only then breaking out into serious, painful diaper rashes. If these accounts are accurate, it means that children may develop rashes only after prolonged use of the new diapers, or after certain unusual conditions are met, and that it can happen even after you have tried the new diapers and think your child is fine in them. It is difficult to calculate the incidence of these rashes (if you believed Pampers' story, they are very rare) but based on the severity of the reported rashes (blisters, blood, persistence for a week or more after discontinuing use) we'd advise anyone with options to consider them. We've read from many parents that Target brand diapers are a pretty close match to the Pampers fit and function.
Second, although the CPSC has launched an investigation, that fact does not prove that there is going to be any action, and there may not be an action they are in a position to take. Recalls are voluntary and the companies that cave to pressure from the CPSC under circumstances like these are typically not those with the legal muscle of Proctor & Gamble. P&G may be using perfectly legal materials and chemicals in ways that cause an an increased incidence of severe rashes - severe enough that children are suffering and parents are angry enough to take action, but perfectly legal nonetheless.
We'll have much more to say on this matter in the next few days, including a rundown of possible sources of the problem, Proctor & Gamble's handling of the issue, and the central - yet in some ways problematic - role social media has played in this issue so far.
Find out how you can help.
Large and In Charge: The Britax Chaperone Infant Car Seat and Stroller
By Adrienne | April 26, 2010 | 12 comments / Join the conversation!
The Britax Chaperone Infant Travel System - an infant car seat and stroller that sell in combination or as separates - has won over our family with combination of advanced infant safety features and parental conveniences. Like the Chaperone itself, this is a heavy-duty review: We've been testing the Chaperone infant car seat and its companion stroller for six months, have installed and used the seat in four cars of varying interior dimensions, and have a lot to say about some design advances in both the Chaperone's car seat and stroller. The Chaperone made us put our own money where our mouths are (but we'll save that for the end). First, we need you to know that although we love and are willing to pay for quality, we're a brand-agnostic family of car seat users with two children as well as in-laws in need of safe transport options for our son and daughter.
When my oldest was born we bought car seats solely off Consumer Reports' recommendations. That meant that our first car seats were an assortment of Graco, Evenflo, and Cosco.
I bought our first Britax car seat when our tall two-year-old outgrew his convertible car seat, two and a half years ago. At that time, sticking with discount brands would have meant taking him out of a five-point harness and placing him in a booster with a lapbelt - it was hard to find a forward-facing car seat with a five-point harness to kids over 40 inches. I just couldn't stomach my two-year-old riding in a lapbelt booster. The arrangement seemed unwise and unsafe.
Back then, Britax's Regent was one of a few seats large enough offer my son a five-point harness with room to grow. When our second was born, I didn't feel like replacing already purchased equipment, so we used a Graco Snugride through her early infancy.
When our daughter had come close to outgrowing her SnugRide this past summer, we were offered the chance to review Britax's new Chaperone Infant Travel System. I didn't know if we would be able to cram our unusually tall baby into an infant seat long enough to offer a good test, but it turns out she has been able to use the Chaperone seven months beyond completely outgrowing the Graco, and is just now growing out of the Chaperone.
The Chaperone's height limit is 32 inches; our Graco SnugRide maxes out at 29 inches, although the new SnugRide 35 reaches 32 inches as well (and both it and the Chaperone offer a maximum seated shoulder height, or torso length, of 11 inches). [Thanks to reader MBR for some of this info.]
As soon as I pulled the stroller out of the shipping carton and started laying out parts, my friend working in South Africa called. My geek mind couldn't resist assembling the stroller while we talked. Even while holding a phone, it took me about 7 minutes for a flawless assembly. Britax's instructions are sequentialand very clear. I knew where every part had to go and didn't have any trouble identifying the right part for proper installation.
The car seat assembly consisted of snapping on the sunshade.
An unexpected kids' gear critic in my life is an Engineering Ph.D. (mechanical and aeronautic) who is also my dad and a doting grandfather. He tends to hone in on a product's weakness in seconds. Comments starting with the phrase "That will work fine until you..." have proved entirely accurate. Don't tell my dad this, but I rarely lose the receipts until he's given new gear a thoughtful once-over.
When I rolled the Britax Chaperone set before him for review, he said "That is built to military specification." In case you don't speak engineer, that's high praise ("an elephant is a mouse built to military specification"). He declared the materials to be a surprisingly high quality and he chuckled with admiration at the folding and braking mechanisms.
I stuck my hand into the basket and showed him how the brake cable was slightly exposed. "Could it be broken with rough treatment?" I asked. For my dad, that may have been the funniest suggestion of the year. Apparently the cable is of notably high strength and I have better chances of headlining on the engineering comedy circuit than I do of disrupting that cable.
On the car seat base, he liked the mechanism that secures the carrier in the base and the rebound bar.
One of the Chaperone infant car seat's most distinctive features is its interior head supports. One in four car accidents involve a side impact, and in the absence of a federal standard, almost every car seat company now has an official-looking program name and badge to go along with their side impact technology. Britax's design, which they've named "True Side Impact Protection," includes well-padded wings which support the neck and spine in a side impact collision. These are significantly thicker than those offered on the SnugRide, and appear to offer significant additional support.
Side impact collisions are particularly dangerous to infants, who lack muscular development which protects the neck and spine. While there are many facets to Britax's TSIP, the snug, reinforced, and well-padded head rest is my favorite feature on the Chaperone. I want an infant seat that gives special attention to head and neck protection in an accident.
Other features of TSIP are deep side walls to prevent direct impact when the car doesn't offer an adequate crumple zone, a seat that curves around the infant to retain their bodies and shield them from intruding objects, and energy-absorbing foam (EPS).
The Britax is a heavier seat than most infant carriers on the market. While this heft made me joke that it should come with a personal trainer, I am happy to know that my baby is surrounded by something of substance. While it's tempting to choose an infant carrier for convenience in carrying, caregivers shouldn't forget that a car seat is what may stand between an infant and the tremendous and violent forces of a car crash. It's easy to get distracted by fabrics and secondary features, but when the chips are down, the seat's performance in a wreck should hold primary attention.
As my dad noticed, the carrier's handle is well-reinforced with metal. This allows the user to leave it in an upright position while in transit (something banned in most infant carriers because of their less substantial construction).
The five-point harness offers no-rethread harness adjustment. Not needing to rethread the seat straps saves time, makes the seat much easier to adjust as the child grows, and prevents performance problems from misthreading. It's also more versatile than a threading seat, as the height can be adjusted gradually rather than being threaded through one of a few designated slots.
Here's how it works, compared to standard fixed-height threaded harnesses.
The Chaperone's front harness tension adjustment is easy to access and operate. Tightening the straps snugly before driving and loosening them when getting out is simple. Britax makes it easy to secure an infant properly every time.
The very large infant canopy works well providing shade and protection from inclement weather.
The lower buckle's belly pad prevented me from pinching the baby's clothing (and the baby) when locking the harness. The seat's fabric is resilient but soft and wiped clean.
Let's start with a video rundown of the basic features and functionality. Text discussion and more details below.
At 25 pounds, the Britax Chaperone stroller weighs more than a jogging stroller we tested (bumbleride Indie, 19 lbs.), but less than Graco's popular full-sized Quattro Tour Deluxe (26.1 lbs.).
The stroller's weight proves advantageous. With a low center of gravity and solid materials, the stroller is not prone to tipping even when fully reclined or with an infant carrier on board. Compact and lightweight strollers simply cannot offer such stability. I enjoy being able to set the kids' coats on the stroller without worrying that it will tip over.
The adjustable handle raises to 42 inches, which is high enough to be comfortable for adults over six feet tall. It has a central hand grip for one handed steering and foam coated grips for two handed driving.
Storage capacity is one of the stroller's strengths. The parent console includes sizable cup holders and a large storage compartment with a snapping lid. I can easily put my sunglasses, wallet, and/or giant key chain in this handy space. I am pretty surprised how often I use it, and I love how it keeps my prescription glasses out of the fray.
The basket design, shown below, is smart. Not only did the designers make it so the back side lowers for good access, they placed the basket far enough forward that a walker with a long stride doesn't accidentally knock it open. The shape allows for taller objects to sit behind the stroller seat supports which is really handy.
The wheels seem to have metal bearings, so they roll with less friction than plastic wheels; this smooth functioning promise a longer life. The front wheels have a quick release mechanism so they can easily be removed for transportation and storage. This presented no problems in use or when the stroller was stowed upright in a vehicle. For some reason when I stowed it laid down in my station wagon, the release was periodically accidentally tripped when I pulled the stroller out of my car. It was easy enough to set the stroller up with three wheels, then quickly reinstall the fourth wheel. I would recommend stowing the stroller upright (which also has a smaller footprint, but doesn't work in my cargo space) if possible.
For the passenger, the included tray serves as toy storage and a traveling snack bar. (I love that Britax didn't cut corners and make this useful feature an add-on accessory.) Our determinedly independent baby loves being able to manage her own stuff, so the tray's basins and a sippy cup or toy provide her ample amusement.
For the convenience of older kids, the tray can be removed and replaced with dual armrests.
Our tall four-year-old son can ride comfortably in this stroller, although we usually make him walk. There's even some room for him to grow.
One of the distinctive new features in the Chaperone is the mechanism that locks the car seat into the stroller.
Most strollers that tote a car seat do so by locking the head end of the infant carrier onto either the front tray or a bar at the front of the stroller. Depending on the stroller, the foot end of the infant carrier is secured by a strap, a set of small plastic tabs, or not at all. These configurations rely heavily on gravity and always make me wonder what would happen if the stroller were to fall or be knocked over. I am uneasy with the unsecured feet and feel like the tabs are easy to forget. While the strap system may be the most secure of the methods mentioned about, it is the least convenient of configurations. I often see parents skipping or forgetting the strap when using car-seat-carrying strollers.
The Chaperone breaks new ground with its mechanism that locks the seat into the stroller at the foot. In order to use the carrier in the stroller, the user must pull up a flap located at the lower back of the stroller seat and turn two large tabs upwards before lowering the seat back fully. This two-minute process prepares the stroller to hold the infant seat. These simple steps must be reversed for a child to sit in the stroller without the carrier.
The carrier is lowered straight down (not tilted in) into the stroller seat. The foot end of the carrier locks solidly onto the stroller frame via the metal reinforced tabs. The head of the carrier rests upon the snack tray (which is locked in its lowered position). Because of the locking mechanism at the carrier's foot end, the entire carrier is very secure. The head end cannot be lifted or wiggled from side to side without unlatching the carrier from the stroller.
The locking mechanism for the stroller operates in the same way as it does with the car base. The user simply grasps the handle under the car seat head and slides it back while lifting directly up. For me, the motions to remove the Chaperone carrier from its stroller are simpler and more efficient than removing the Graco Snugride carrier from its matching stroller frame. (Britax offers an adapter strap which makes the stroller compatible with most other infant carriers. If you are committed to a competing brand of carrier, you might call Britax to confirm that it will be compatible with the Chaperone stroller.)
The steel-reinforced supports in the photo above are where the car seat docks. The supports are raised to the position shown, the stroller seat is then reclined to the lowest position to accomodate the infant carrier.
The overall weight of the stroller and carrier combination might make it difficult for a mom who had a C-section to use on solo trips in the first week's of the baby's life. However, the weight of the stroller coupled with its low center of gravity make the Chaperone a surprisingly tip-resistant carrier-toting stroller.
When the carrier is in place, the baby is facing the caregiver. The stroller's large sunshade can overlap the carrier's ample shade which is great for keeping out the weather, offering some naptime privacy, and offering shade on a sunny day. The peep-hole window in the top allows caregivers the opportunity to check on the child without disturbing the baby.
Since both of our cars are pre-LATCH, foreign cars, we chose to test the seat in an additional two vehicles that are more modern and larger. The four cars we used to test the Chaperone in were a 1995 Toyota Corolla, a 1997 Honda Accord, a 2000 Ford Winstar, and a 2007 PT Cruiser.
The Chaperone car seat base is much easier to install well than our Graco Snugride bases. With the non-LATCH, lap-shoulder belt installation, it's sometimes rather challenging to get the slack out of a seat belt. Britax has made the process a lot easier to see and the belt pathway more accessible. With average geek upper body strength, I am able to pull the belt taut enough that the seat can't be moved more than 1" after installation.
To aid in the non-LATCH installation, Britax has added some clips that clamp over the car seat belt when it is properly threaded. These clamps keep the base from shifting along the car's seat belt.
LATCH installation is simple. By pressing the red button on each clip, the user unlocks the LATCH belt from its ingenious in-base storage. Clip the belt ends to the car's anchors and pull the slack from the belt.
The anti-rebound bar not only keeps the seat from rebounding, but it also wedges the infant carrier into the car's seat base. A lot of infant seats attach to the car only at the foot, and that limited amount of contact with the car seems to offer a lot of opportunity to shift. The Chaperone has the foot anchor, but the 90 degree angle formed by the anti-rebound bar offers a second contact area (touching the back of the car's seat). The anti-rebound bar not only prevents the base from lifting off the seat during a crash, it also minimizes side to side shifting by offering a second contact area with the car seat.
The only drawback to the addition of the rebound bar is that it makes the seat's total footprint longer than most car seats on the market. This doesn't make a big difference in larger vehicles or when front seat passengers don't need all the legroom available, but it might be an issue in smaller cars with taller drivers.
The base's height adjustment knob solves a lot of positioning problems without adding rolled up towels or swim noodles. These feature assists so greatly in achieving a secure installation that I had to wonder why car seats were ever designed without it.
Another feature of the base I really love are the easy to see instructions for placing the car seat in the base. While the guidelines' prominent placement might not seem important to a caregiver who uses the seat more than once a day, they can help to secondary caregivers who only uses it a couple times a week or month. When our kids ride with other drivers, we usually install the car seats in their vehicle. With an infant carrier, I always want to be sure that the adults know how to secure the seat to the base. The simple, visible instructions provide ready answers.
Attaching the seat to the base is simple. The base guides the seat into the proper position.
The base is easy enough to install, even in non-LATCH situations, that a second base might not be required. This is a base I wouldn't mind moving from one car to another because I feel confident that I can get a secure installation every time.
For the first installation, I was able to place the Chaperone in the center of the back seat of a 97 Honda Accord. The Chaperone fit, but if I lowered the carrier handle to the head it projected into the front row. This might not bother other drivers of similarly small cars, but I keep my front row seats in the farthest back position. Also, the Chaperone's carrier handle (unlike most infant carriers) does not have to be lowered while in transit.
Britax has given the Chaperone a much stronger handle than other infant carriers. It looks like the handle is metal-reinforced plastic, while competing brands tend to opt for a honeycombed plastic design. Leaving the handle upright (or lowering it below the head of the carrier) reduces the seat's length about 4 inches.
Because of the narrowness of my car's back bench and the width of my son's car (large) seat, the Chaperone doesn't install in the middle position with both seats in place. See photo at left. It can be installed behind the Honda's passenger seat, but it doesn't leave much leg room for the tall people who ride in my car. The configuration is fine for local travel without adult passengers, but it wouldn't work for a long trip. See photo below, where it is paired with a six-foot-tall passenger.
Our 95 Corolla yielded similar results: Good fit in the middle position, too cramped behind a tall driver (my knees hit the dashboard when the driver's seat was forward enough to accommodate the Chaperone's length), and okay (although crowded for tall folks) behind the passenger seat.
In a 2000 Ford Windstar the seat's length was less of an issue. It would have fit behind a driver's seat in its farthest back position except for the poor placement of an odd handle on the back of the driver's seat. With this atypical obstacle, we opted to lower the handle below the carrier's head rather than leaving it upright. This made the seat a little harder to lower and raise from the base, but it worked well otherwise. Take a look:
We later moved the Chaperone behind the passenger seat. In this location we were able to lower the handle to the head and have the carrier fit well with only a slight forward adjustment of the front passenger seat.
We also used the Chaperone in a 2009 PT Cruiser. It fit well in the center, with some crowding behind the driver, and an acceptable fit behind the passenger. In the PT cruiser we could place our son's large car seat on one side and still have the Chaperone in the center position.
In my opinion, the Chaperone (like many car seats) is easiest to use in a larger vehicle. There may be some legroom compromises in a smaller car, but the seat does fit.
Despite the complications of fit in some of our cars, the seat's nestling head supports and sturdy body won my heart. The Chaperone's excellent materials and design innovations convince me Britax's designers have each infant's well-being in mind. The Chaperone seat is heavily constructed, but the weight is not notable when used with the stroller. The stroller is likely one of the strongest (in terms of construction) I have seen on the market. It will last through a number of children.
Perhaps the best testament to the the Chaperone's strong, well-considered design is that it convinced me to replace our previously purchased mass-maker convertible seats with two new Britax convertible seats with similar head supports, purchased at my own expense. After using the Chaperone, all our non-Britax seats looked flimsy by comparison, and the additional expense felt like an investment worth making. All in all, the Chaperone is the heavyweight car seat that I want in my corner.
The Chaperone retails at $230 for the car seat, $300 for the stroller and $90 for an additional base. Stroller accessories include a rain cover ($30), canopy netting ($30), foot muff ($40), and arm rest covers ($8). While the accessories might be nice, I didn't feel that any of them were necessary to enjoy a full range of stroller use.
Adrienne Jones has reviewed the bumbleride Indie and bumbleride Queen B strollers for Z Recommends, and also blogs at Baby Toolkit. ZRecs does not require guest reviewers to dispose of review items in accordance with our Keep No Stuff policy.
Our Brand Background
When my oldest was born we bought car seats solely off Consumer Reports' recommendations. That meant that our first car seats were an assortment of Graco, Evenflo, and Cosco.
I bought our first Britax car seat when our tall two-year-old outgrew his convertible car seat, two and a half years ago. At that time, sticking with discount brands would have meant taking him out of a five-point harness and placing him in a booster with a lapbelt - it was hard to find a forward-facing car seat with a five-point harness to kids over 40 inches. I just couldn't stomach my two-year-old riding in a lapbelt booster. The arrangement seemed unwise and unsafe.
Back then, Britax's Regent was one of a few seats large enough offer my son a five-point harness with room to grow. When our second was born, I didn't feel like replacing already purchased equipment, so we used a Graco Snugride through her early infancy.
When our daughter had come close to outgrowing her SnugRide this past summer, we were offered the chance to review Britax's new Chaperone Infant Travel System. I didn't know if we would be able to cram our unusually tall baby into an infant seat long enough to offer a good test, but it turns out she has been able to use the Chaperone seven months beyond completely outgrowing the Graco, and is just now growing out of the Chaperone.
The Chaperone's height limit is 32 inches; our Graco SnugRide maxes out at 29 inches, although the new SnugRide 35 reaches 32 inches as well (and both it and the Chaperone offer a maximum seated shoulder height, or torso length, of 11 inches). [Thanks to reader MBR for some of this info.]
Assembly and Initial Impressions
As soon as I pulled the stroller out of the shipping carton and started laying out parts, my friend working in South Africa called. My geek mind couldn't resist assembling the stroller while we talked. Even while holding a phone, it took me about 7 minutes for a flawless assembly. Britax's instructions are sequentialand very clear. I knew where every part had to go and didn't have any trouble identifying the right part for proper installation.
The car seat assembly consisted of snapping on the sunshade.
An unexpected kids' gear critic in my life is an Engineering Ph.D. (mechanical and aeronautic) who is also my dad and a doting grandfather. He tends to hone in on a product's weakness in seconds. Comments starting with the phrase "That will work fine until you..." have proved entirely accurate. Don't tell my dad this, but I rarely lose the receipts until he's given new gear a thoughtful once-over.
When I rolled the Britax Chaperone set before him for review, he said "That is built to military specification." In case you don't speak engineer, that's high praise ("an elephant is a mouse built to military specification"). He declared the materials to be a surprisingly high quality and he chuckled with admiration at the folding and braking mechanisms.
I stuck my hand into the basket and showed him how the brake cable was slightly exposed. "Could it be broken with rough treatment?" I asked. For my dad, that may have been the funniest suggestion of the year. Apparently the cable is of notably high strength and I have better chances of headlining on the engineering comedy circuit than I do of disrupting that cable.
On the car seat base, he liked the mechanism that secures the carrier in the base and the rebound bar.
The Car Seat
One of the Chaperone infant car seat's most distinctive features is its interior head supports. One in four car accidents involve a side impact, and in the absence of a federal standard, almost every car seat company now has an official-looking program name and badge to go along with their side impact technology. Britax's design, which they've named "True Side Impact Protection," includes well-padded wings which support the neck and spine in a side impact collision. These are significantly thicker than those offered on the SnugRide, and appear to offer significant additional support.
Side impact collisions are particularly dangerous to infants, who lack muscular development which protects the neck and spine. While there are many facets to Britax's TSIP, the snug, reinforced, and well-padded head rest is my favorite feature on the Chaperone. I want an infant seat that gives special attention to head and neck protection in an accident.
Other features of TSIP are deep side walls to prevent direct impact when the car doesn't offer an adequate crumple zone, a seat that curves around the infant to retain their bodies and shield them from intruding objects, and energy-absorbing foam (EPS).
The Britax is a heavier seat than most infant carriers on the market. While this heft made me joke that it should come with a personal trainer, I am happy to know that my baby is surrounded by something of substance. While it's tempting to choose an infant carrier for convenience in carrying, caregivers shouldn't forget that a car seat is what may stand between an infant and the tremendous and violent forces of a car crash. It's easy to get distracted by fabrics and secondary features, but when the chips are down, the seat's performance in a wreck should hold primary attention.
As my dad noticed, the carrier's handle is well-reinforced with metal. This allows the user to leave it in an upright position while in transit (something banned in most infant carriers because of their less substantial construction).
The five-point harness offers no-rethread harness adjustment. Not needing to rethread the seat straps saves time, makes the seat much easier to adjust as the child grows, and prevents performance problems from misthreading. It's also more versatile than a threading seat, as the height can be adjusted gradually rather than being threaded through one of a few designated slots.
Here's how it works, compared to standard fixed-height threaded harnesses.
The Chaperone's front harness tension adjustment is easy to access and operate. Tightening the straps snugly before driving and loosening them when getting out is simple. Britax makes it easy to secure an infant properly every time.
The very large infant canopy works well providing shade and protection from inclement weather.
The lower buckle's belly pad prevented me from pinching the baby's clothing (and the baby) when locking the harness. The seat's fabric is resilient but soft and wiped clean.
The Stroller
Let's start with a video rundown of the basic features and functionality. Text discussion and more details below.
At 25 pounds, the Britax Chaperone stroller weighs more than a jogging stroller we tested (bumbleride Indie, 19 lbs.), but less than Graco's popular full-sized Quattro Tour Deluxe (26.1 lbs.).
The stroller's weight proves advantageous. With a low center of gravity and solid materials, the stroller is not prone to tipping even when fully reclined or with an infant carrier on board. Compact and lightweight strollers simply cannot offer such stability. I enjoy being able to set the kids' coats on the stroller without worrying that it will tip over.
The adjustable handle raises to 42 inches, which is high enough to be comfortable for adults over six feet tall. It has a central hand grip for one handed steering and foam coated grips for two handed driving.
Storage capacity is one of the stroller's strengths. The parent console includes sizable cup holders and a large storage compartment with a snapping lid. I can easily put my sunglasses, wallet, and/or giant key chain in this handy space. I am pretty surprised how often I use it, and I love how it keeps my prescription glasses out of the fray.
The basket design, shown below, is smart. Not only did the designers make it so the back side lowers for good access, they placed the basket far enough forward that a walker with a long stride doesn't accidentally knock it open. The shape allows for taller objects to sit behind the stroller seat supports which is really handy.
The wheels seem to have metal bearings, so they roll with less friction than plastic wheels; this smooth functioning promise a longer life. The front wheels have a quick release mechanism so they can easily be removed for transportation and storage. This presented no problems in use or when the stroller was stowed upright in a vehicle. For some reason when I stowed it laid down in my station wagon, the release was periodically accidentally tripped when I pulled the stroller out of my car. It was easy enough to set the stroller up with three wheels, then quickly reinstall the fourth wheel. I would recommend stowing the stroller upright (which also has a smaller footprint, but doesn't work in my cargo space) if possible.
For the passenger, the included tray serves as toy storage and a traveling snack bar. (I love that Britax didn't cut corners and make this useful feature an add-on accessory.) Our determinedly independent baby loves being able to manage her own stuff, so the tray's basins and a sippy cup or toy provide her ample amusement.
For the convenience of older kids, the tray can be removed and replaced with dual armrests.
Our tall four-year-old son can ride comfortably in this stroller, although we usually make him walk. There's even some room for him to grow.
Using the Infant Carrier on the Stroller
One of the distinctive new features in the Chaperone is the mechanism that locks the car seat into the stroller.
Most strollers that tote a car seat do so by locking the head end of the infant carrier onto either the front tray or a bar at the front of the stroller. Depending on the stroller, the foot end of the infant carrier is secured by a strap, a set of small plastic tabs, or not at all. These configurations rely heavily on gravity and always make me wonder what would happen if the stroller were to fall or be knocked over. I am uneasy with the unsecured feet and feel like the tabs are easy to forget. While the strap system may be the most secure of the methods mentioned about, it is the least convenient of configurations. I often see parents skipping or forgetting the strap when using car-seat-carrying strollers.
The Chaperone breaks new ground with its mechanism that locks the seat into the stroller at the foot. In order to use the carrier in the stroller, the user must pull up a flap located at the lower back of the stroller seat and turn two large tabs upwards before lowering the seat back fully. This two-minute process prepares the stroller to hold the infant seat. These simple steps must be reversed for a child to sit in the stroller without the carrier.
The carrier is lowered straight down (not tilted in) into the stroller seat. The foot end of the carrier locks solidly onto the stroller frame via the metal reinforced tabs. The head of the carrier rests upon the snack tray (which is locked in its lowered position). Because of the locking mechanism at the carrier's foot end, the entire carrier is very secure. The head end cannot be lifted or wiggled from side to side without unlatching the carrier from the stroller.
The locking mechanism for the stroller operates in the same way as it does with the car base. The user simply grasps the handle under the car seat head and slides it back while lifting directly up. For me, the motions to remove the Chaperone carrier from its stroller are simpler and more efficient than removing the Graco Snugride carrier from its matching stroller frame. (Britax offers an adapter strap which makes the stroller compatible with most other infant carriers. If you are committed to a competing brand of carrier, you might call Britax to confirm that it will be compatible with the Chaperone stroller.)
The steel-reinforced supports in the photo above are where the car seat docks. The supports are raised to the position shown, the stroller seat is then reclined to the lowest position to accomodate the infant carrier.
The overall weight of the stroller and carrier combination might make it difficult for a mom who had a C-section to use on solo trips in the first week's of the baby's life. However, the weight of the stroller coupled with its low center of gravity make the Chaperone a surprisingly tip-resistant carrier-toting stroller.
When the carrier is in place, the baby is facing the caregiver. The stroller's large sunshade can overlap the carrier's ample shade which is great for keeping out the weather, offering some naptime privacy, and offering shade on a sunny day. The peep-hole window in the top allows caregivers the opportunity to check on the child without disturbing the baby.
The Infant Carrier Base
Since both of our cars are pre-LATCH, foreign cars, we chose to test the seat in an additional two vehicles that are more modern and larger. The four cars we used to test the Chaperone in were a 1995 Toyota Corolla, a 1997 Honda Accord, a 2000 Ford Winstar, and a 2007 PT Cruiser.
The Chaperone car seat base is much easier to install well than our Graco Snugride bases. With the non-LATCH, lap-shoulder belt installation, it's sometimes rather challenging to get the slack out of a seat belt. Britax has made the process a lot easier to see and the belt pathway more accessible. With average geek upper body strength, I am able to pull the belt taut enough that the seat can't be moved more than 1" after installation.
To aid in the non-LATCH installation, Britax has added some clips that clamp over the car seat belt when it is properly threaded. These clamps keep the base from shifting along the car's seat belt.
LATCH installation is simple. By pressing the red button on each clip, the user unlocks the LATCH belt from its ingenious in-base storage. Clip the belt ends to the car's anchors and pull the slack from the belt.
The anti-rebound bar not only keeps the seat from rebounding, but it also wedges the infant carrier into the car's seat base. A lot of infant seats attach to the car only at the foot, and that limited amount of contact with the car seems to offer a lot of opportunity to shift. The Chaperone has the foot anchor, but the 90 degree angle formed by the anti-rebound bar offers a second contact area (touching the back of the car's seat). The anti-rebound bar not only prevents the base from lifting off the seat during a crash, it also minimizes side to side shifting by offering a second contact area with the car seat.
The only drawback to the addition of the rebound bar is that it makes the seat's total footprint longer than most car seats on the market. This doesn't make a big difference in larger vehicles or when front seat passengers don't need all the legroom available, but it might be an issue in smaller cars with taller drivers.
The base's height adjustment knob solves a lot of positioning problems without adding rolled up towels or swim noodles. These feature assists so greatly in achieving a secure installation that I had to wonder why car seats were ever designed without it.
Another feature of the base I really love are the easy to see instructions for placing the car seat in the base. While the guidelines' prominent placement might not seem important to a caregiver who uses the seat more than once a day, they can help to secondary caregivers who only uses it a couple times a week or month. When our kids ride with other drivers, we usually install the car seats in their vehicle. With an infant carrier, I always want to be sure that the adults know how to secure the seat to the base. The simple, visible instructions provide ready answers.
Attaching the seat to the base is simple. The base guides the seat into the proper position.
The base is easy enough to install, even in non-LATCH situations, that a second base might not be required. This is a base I wouldn't mind moving from one car to another because I feel confident that I can get a secure installation every time.
Cramped in Small Cars
For the first installation, I was able to place the Chaperone in the center of the back seat of a 97 Honda Accord. The Chaperone fit, but if I lowered the carrier handle to the head it projected into the front row. This might not bother other drivers of similarly small cars, but I keep my front row seats in the farthest back position. Also, the Chaperone's carrier handle (unlike most infant carriers) does not have to be lowered while in transit.
Britax has given the Chaperone a much stronger handle than other infant carriers. It looks like the handle is metal-reinforced plastic, while competing brands tend to opt for a honeycombed plastic design. Leaving the handle upright (or lowering it below the head of the carrier) reduces the seat's length about 4 inches.
Because of the narrowness of my car's back bench and the width of my son's car (large) seat, the Chaperone doesn't install in the middle position with both seats in place. See photo at left. It can be installed behind the Honda's passenger seat, but it doesn't leave much leg room for the tall people who ride in my car. The configuration is fine for local travel without adult passengers, but it wouldn't work for a long trip. See photo below, where it is paired with a six-foot-tall passenger.Our 95 Corolla yielded similar results: Good fit in the middle position, too cramped behind a tall driver (my knees hit the dashboard when the driver's seat was forward enough to accommodate the Chaperone's length), and okay (although crowded for tall folks) behind the passenger seat.
Better in Bigger Cars
In a 2000 Ford Windstar the seat's length was less of an issue. It would have fit behind a driver's seat in its farthest back position except for the poor placement of an odd handle on the back of the driver's seat. With this atypical obstacle, we opted to lower the handle below the carrier's head rather than leaving it upright. This made the seat a little harder to lower and raise from the base, but it worked well otherwise. Take a look:
We later moved the Chaperone behind the passenger seat. In this location we were able to lower the handle to the head and have the carrier fit well with only a slight forward adjustment of the front passenger seat.
We also used the Chaperone in a 2009 PT Cruiser. It fit well in the center, with some crowding behind the driver, and an acceptable fit behind the passenger. In the PT cruiser we could place our son's large car seat on one side and still have the Chaperone in the center position.
In my opinion, the Chaperone (like many car seats) is easiest to use in a larger vehicle. There may be some legroom compromises in a smaller car, but the seat does fit.
Summary
Despite the complications of fit in some of our cars, the seat's nestling head supports and sturdy body won my heart. The Chaperone's excellent materials and design innovations convince me Britax's designers have each infant's well-being in mind. The Chaperone seat is heavily constructed, but the weight is not notable when used with the stroller. The stroller is likely one of the strongest (in terms of construction) I have seen on the market. It will last through a number of children.
Perhaps the best testament to the the Chaperone's strong, well-considered design is that it convinced me to replace our previously purchased mass-maker convertible seats with two new Britax convertible seats with similar head supports, purchased at my own expense. After using the Chaperone, all our non-Britax seats looked flimsy by comparison, and the additional expense felt like an investment worth making. All in all, the Chaperone is the heavyweight car seat that I want in my corner.
The Chaperone retails at $230 for the car seat, $300 for the stroller and $90 for an additional base. Stroller accessories include a rain cover ($30), canopy netting ($30), foot muff ($40), and arm rest covers ($8). While the accessories might be nice, I didn't feel that any of them were necessary to enjoy a full range of stroller use.
Adrienne Jones has reviewed the bumbleride Indie and bumbleride Queen B strollers for Z Recommends, and also blogs at Baby Toolkit. ZRecs does not require guest reviewers to dispose of review items in accordance with our Keep No Stuff policy.
No guns allowed: Why our five-year-old’s ears were pierced by a pro
By Jennifer | April 15, 2010 | 13 comments / Join the conversation!
Full disclosure: I have a lip ring. I've had it for ten or eleven years now, and I didn't get it on a whim - I got it after considering the idea and wanting one for about 7 years. I also have multiple earrings in each ear; those were not quite so carefully considered but I love them nonetheless. So when it came to the prospect of piercing my daughter's ears, I approached the matter with a bit more scrutiny than some. To me, ear piercing is not just a possible rite of passage; it's a matter of health, hygiene, and quasi-permanent body modification. (Even if ear piercings are allowed to close, there is a permanent effect.) That's serious stuff to expose a five-year-old to, but that's just what we did last month when we let our daughter Z get her ears pierced.
We've written about how Zella came to the personal decision to get her ears pierced, why we let her do it, and how she confronted and overcame her fears over on The Tranquil Parent. I'll include a direct link to the post at the end of this one. Here on Z Recommends, I'd like to explain why we chose to go this route and how we made it happen.
I knew from the previous conversations with our local piercing studio that they wouldn't pierce children's ears under the age of 12, so I looked up some places in Houston, the nearest big city. I found three places that were members of the Association of Professional Piercers, an organization of piercers who scrupulously follow legal as well as voluntary standards of body piercing best practices, including piercing procedures and sterilization of tools. I called all three, and one of them was willing to pierce our five-year-old daughter's ears, provided we sign a consent form.
So why did we choose to take her to a piercing salon instead of taking her to the mall or another place that uses a piercing gun?
Make no mistake: We are thrilled to hear about any child's successful piercing experience, and in that sense we don't care whether it was done at a piercing studio or a mall kiosk. We know many parents appreciate the convenience and affordability of gun piercing, and we don't blame them. But there are risks as well as drawbacks to the use of piercing guns to pierce ears. Here are the biggies:
Cleanliness and sterilization. The gun's plastic parts can be wiped down but not completely sterilized (that requires high heat, which plastic can't take). Internal parts that cannot be removed cannot be cleaned at all without expensive equipment virtually no one using a gun will have. The blunt force trauma required to puncture an earlobe with a piercing stud (see below) causes a microspray of plasma and blood that can get on these internal parts and pass bloodborne pathogens on to subsequent customers. These tools are not properly autoclaved the way they would be required to be anywhere else the skin was being penetrated (doctor's office, hospital, or piercing studio).
At a reputable piercing studio, all instruments are sterilized with an autoclave (the same thing they use to sterilize tools in hospitals). Where we got Z's ears pierced, the piercer wore gloves to get out her equipment and then put a pair of sterile gloves on top of her other gloves. They were so sanitary that I never felt like by piercing Z's ears we were running the risk of exposing her to blood-borne diseases. Here's the APP's take on the matter:
Regulatory oversight. In Texas, where we live, piercing studios - places that pierce any body parts beyond earlobes - are required by the State of Texas to be regulated by the Department of Health. This means (among other things) that state inspectors are monitoring the studio to insuring that "the artist practices universal precautions to prevent the spread of infection, such as... uses instruments that are either disposable or that are routinely sterilized." It also means that those who pierce ears with piercing guns are not regulated by the Department of Health. Period. I have no idea why places that pierce only ear lobes are not subject to the same requirements and health inspections - infection can enter an ear lobe just as easily as it can a belly button - but they aren't. Would you go to a restaurant that wasn't inspected by the Health Department because they only served cold sandwiches?
Training. Many piercing gun users are trained by DVD and instruction manual. Many perform piercings infrequently. Many do not do it many times before they have moved on to a new service sector job. Professional piercers go through classes or an extended apprenticeship, typically under highly experienced piercers, and they stay in the profession a long time. Look at it this way: At a mall jewelry shop, ear piercings are the most difficult and challenging task an employee will perform. At a piercing studio, they are the easiest.
Proper piercing produces quality results. Piercing studios pierce with a sharp, hollow needle which makes a clean hole in the ear. A piercing gun uses a blunt earring and the force of the gun to puncture the ear lobe, causing the skin to tear rather than pierce cleanly. Piercing guns position earrings with less precision, often leading to higher or lower positioning than desired and mismatched piercings.
The consequences of poorly performed and non-sterile piercings can be serious. Infections from piercing guns are not tracked by the industry and are certainly underreported (no Department of Health oversight, remember?) but can range from minor infections to persistent lumps in the earlobes to needing to have an earring surgically removed.
If we'd gone with the cheapest earrings at the mall, we could have gotten Zella's ears pierced for about $20. Instead, between the professional piercer and the stainless steel stud earrings she put in, we spent about $100. Like many things in life, there is a pretty big price gap between convenience and quality.
Though at some points it was one of those decisions which, because of the added expense and difficulty in finding a place that would pierce a five-year-old's ears, caused me to start I questioning my sanity (Am I researching too much, making things too difficult for myself?) in hindsight I'm thrilled that we stuck to our needle (I couldn't say we stuck to our guns!) and found a way to make it work. Zella's piercings are beautiful, perfect round holes. Two weeks in, they already looked almost completely healed; it has been a month now with no problems, and although our daily cleanings of the piercings are part of the reason, I firmly believe the proper piercing method provided the best foundation.
Again, we have no interest in judging or criticizing anyone who has gone the route of the mall piercing gun, and if the experience worked out for you, that's wonderful. But if your child's ears are not yet pierced, we encourage you to seriously consider using a professional piercer.
"What may look like melodrama to the jaded initiate is, for those at the threshold, simply drama. And for my money, the ability to willingly withstand pain is the most profound threshold of fear a young child can overcome." You can read Jeremiah's personal, politics-free account of our five-year-old's challenging piercing experience on The Tranquil Parent.
We've written about how Zella came to the personal decision to get her ears pierced, why we let her do it, and how she confronted and overcame her fears over on The Tranquil Parent. I'll include a direct link to the post at the end of this one. Here on Z Recommends, I'd like to explain why we chose to go this route and how we made it happen.
Finding a studio
I knew from the previous conversations with our local piercing studio that they wouldn't pierce children's ears under the age of 12, so I looked up some places in Houston, the nearest big city. I found three places that were members of the Association of Professional Piercers, an organization of piercers who scrupulously follow legal as well as voluntary standards of body piercing best practices, including piercing procedures and sterilization of tools. I called all three, and one of them was willing to pierce our five-year-old daughter's ears, provided we sign a consent form.
So why did we choose to take her to a piercing salon instead of taking her to the mall or another place that uses a piercing gun?
The trouble with piercing guns
Make no mistake: We are thrilled to hear about any child's successful piercing experience, and in that sense we don't care whether it was done at a piercing studio or a mall kiosk. We know many parents appreciate the convenience and affordability of gun piercing, and we don't blame them. But there are risks as well as drawbacks to the use of piercing guns to pierce ears. Here are the biggies:
Cleanliness and sterilization. The gun's plastic parts can be wiped down but not completely sterilized (that requires high heat, which plastic can't take). Internal parts that cannot be removed cannot be cleaned at all without expensive equipment virtually no one using a gun will have. The blunt force trauma required to puncture an earlobe with a piercing stud (see below) causes a microspray of plasma and blood that can get on these internal parts and pass bloodborne pathogens on to subsequent customers. These tools are not properly autoclaved the way they would be required to be anywhere else the skin was being penetrated (doctor's office, hospital, or piercing studio).
At a reputable piercing studio, all instruments are sterilized with an autoclave (the same thing they use to sterilize tools in hospitals). Where we got Z's ears pierced, the piercer wore gloves to get out her equipment and then put a pair of sterile gloves on top of her other gloves. They were so sanitary that I never felt like by piercing Z's ears we were running the risk of exposing her to blood-borne diseases. Here's the APP's take on the matter:
It is the position of the Association of Professional Piercers that only sterile disposable equipment is suitable for body piercing, and that only materials which are certified as safe for internal implant should be placed in inside a fresh or unhealed piercing. We consider unsafe any procedure that places vulnerable tissue in contact with either non-sterile equipment or jewelry that is not considered medically safe for long-term internal wear. Such procedures place the health of recipients at an unacceptable risk. [Link]
Regulatory oversight. In Texas, where we live, piercing studios - places that pierce any body parts beyond earlobes - are required by the State of Texas to be regulated by the Department of Health. This means (among other things) that state inspectors are monitoring the studio to insuring that "the artist practices universal precautions to prevent the spread of infection, such as... uses instruments that are either disposable or that are routinely sterilized." It also means that those who pierce ears with piercing guns are not regulated by the Department of Health. Period. I have no idea why places that pierce only ear lobes are not subject to the same requirements and health inspections - infection can enter an ear lobe just as easily as it can a belly button - but they aren't. Would you go to a restaurant that wasn't inspected by the Health Department because they only served cold sandwiches?
Training. Many piercing gun users are trained by DVD and instruction manual. Many perform piercings infrequently. Many do not do it many times before they have moved on to a new service sector job. Professional piercers go through classes or an extended apprenticeship, typically under highly experienced piercers, and they stay in the profession a long time. Look at it this way: At a mall jewelry shop, ear piercings are the most difficult and challenging task an employee will perform. At a piercing studio, they are the easiest.
Proper piercing produces quality results. Piercing studios pierce with a sharp, hollow needle which makes a clean hole in the ear. A piercing gun uses a blunt earring and the force of the gun to puncture the ear lobe, causing the skin to tear rather than pierce cleanly. Piercing guns position earrings with less precision, often leading to higher or lower positioning than desired and mismatched piercings.
The consequences of poorly performed and non-sterile piercings can be serious. Infections from piercing guns are not tracked by the industry and are certainly underreported (no Department of Health oversight, remember?) but can range from minor infections to persistent lumps in the earlobes to needing to have an earring surgically removed.
Conclusions
If we'd gone with the cheapest earrings at the mall, we could have gotten Zella's ears pierced for about $20. Instead, between the professional piercer and the stainless steel stud earrings she put in, we spent about $100. Like many things in life, there is a pretty big price gap between convenience and quality.
Though at some points it was one of those decisions which, because of the added expense and difficulty in finding a place that would pierce a five-year-old's ears, caused me to start I questioning my sanity (Am I researching too much, making things too difficult for myself?) in hindsight I'm thrilled that we stuck to our needle (I couldn't say we stuck to our guns!) and found a way to make it work. Zella's piercings are beautiful, perfect round holes. Two weeks in, they already looked almost completely healed; it has been a month now with no problems, and although our daily cleanings of the piercings are part of the reason, I firmly believe the proper piercing method provided the best foundation.
Again, we have no interest in judging or criticizing anyone who has gone the route of the mall piercing gun, and if the experience worked out for you, that's wonderful. But if your child's ears are not yet pierced, we encourage you to seriously consider using a professional piercer.
On TTP: The story of Zella's piercing
"What may look like melodrama to the jaded initiate is, for those at the threshold, simply drama. And for my money, the ability to willingly withstand pain is the most profound threshold of fear a young child can overcome." You can read Jeremiah's personal, politics-free account of our five-year-old's challenging piercing experience on The Tranquil Parent.
Categories:
infant and children's health, safety
Cloud b’s Dozy Dolphin recalled in EU for choking and burn hazards
By Jennifer | April 08, 2010 | 1 comment / Join the conversation!
Cloud b, manufacturers of much-loved infant sleep aids Twilight Turtle and Sleep Sheep, just got hit with a product recall in the EU for burn and choking hazards. Now we're wondering if they're trying to quietly phase this product out of the U.S. market without a costly and reputation-damaging recall, which would mean letting the hazardous products remain in thousands of U.S. homes.
Cloud b's infant sleep aid Dozy Dolphin has been recalled in the EU for two things you wouldn't want in your infant's crib. The notice reads: "The product poses a risk of burns because the surface of the batteries becomes too hot and is not adequately insulated; and a risk of choking because of the presence of a small part (the on/off button) that can be easily detached and could be swallowed by a child."
Here's a screen capture of the recall notice, published via the EU's rapid alert recall system on April 2:
To the company's credit, unlike in the U.S., "voluntary" actually has meaning in the European Union; if a company isn't cooperative, authorities can force the companies to withdraw the product from the market, a power they routinely use. But what about the U.S.?
Our research has yielded inconclusive but disconcerting results. You see, "Dozy Dolphin" also comes in an "On the Go" travel size, which is not mentioned in the EU recall, and this downsized edition is the only one currently sold or even mentioned on the company's website, which is a good advance indicator of any company's plans for a questionable product. But the standard-issue Dozy Dolphin is still on sale in the U.S., on Amazon.com and elsewhere. Here's just one of the listings on Amazon for what is clearly the larger, presumably original, edition of the toy, which, please remember, has been determined by EU regulators to pose both burn and choking risks for infants.
We have requested a response from Cloud b regarding their plans for the product in the U.S., and will update this post when they do.
Without a recall, third parties won't stop selling the product as long as units are available unless there's a recall, and of course there's the question of whether Cloud b has even stopped distributing them. Bigger still is the issue of how many of these little friends are in homes across America and in your neighborhood, and whether Cloud b is interested in getting them out of nurseries and reimbursing parents who have put their children at risk with this product. There is also the possibility that these design problems are also present in the "On the Go" version of the Dozy Dolphin; if that version isn't currently imported into the EU, it wouldn't be addressed by their recall.
Ultimately, how Cloud b decides to respond will offer some insight into their capacity to confront safety issues in the phenomenally hazard-prone "bedtime" sector of the children's product market. ZRecs has worked with companies in the past, including Melissa & Doug, to help address consumer concerns regarding international recalls of products available in the U.S. You can read about our success in working with Melissa & Doug here.
We are not aware of any past recalls of Cloud b products in the U.S. or abroad as of this writing.
If you own a Cloud b full-size Dozy Dolphin toy or an "On the Go" version of this toy, do not throw it away. We encourage you to remove it from the crib remove the batteries, and store it until Cloud b issues a statement. Keeping the product on hand ensures that (a) if a recall were to be issued, you would have the greatest chance of recourse; (b) if it is dangerous, it will not end up in another home; and (c) if it proves to be safe, you can begin using it again.
The company does not have a published customer service phone number (!) but you can email them with questions at cs@cloudb.com.
Cloud b's infant sleep aid Dozy Dolphin has been recalled in the EU for two things you wouldn't want in your infant's crib. The notice reads: "The product poses a risk of burns because the surface of the batteries becomes too hot and is not adequately insulated; and a risk of choking because of the presence of a small part (the on/off button) that can be easily detached and could be swallowed by a child."
Here's a screen capture of the recall notice, published via the EU's rapid alert recall system on April 2:
To the company's credit, unlike in the U.S., "voluntary" actually has meaning in the European Union; if a company isn't cooperative, authorities can force the companies to withdraw the product from the market, a power they routinely use. But what about the U.S.?
Our research has yielded inconclusive but disconcerting results. You see, "Dozy Dolphin" also comes in an "On the Go" travel size, which is not mentioned in the EU recall, and this downsized edition is the only one currently sold or even mentioned on the company's website, which is a good advance indicator of any company's plans for a questionable product. But the standard-issue Dozy Dolphin is still on sale in the U.S., on Amazon.com and elsewhere. Here's just one of the listings on Amazon for what is clearly the larger, presumably original, edition of the toy, which, please remember, has been determined by EU regulators to pose both burn and choking risks for infants.
We have requested a response from Cloud b regarding their plans for the product in the U.S., and will update this post when they do.
Why it matters
Without a recall, third parties won't stop selling the product as long as units are available unless there's a recall, and of course there's the question of whether Cloud b has even stopped distributing them. Bigger still is the issue of how many of these little friends are in homes across America and in your neighborhood, and whether Cloud b is interested in getting them out of nurseries and reimbursing parents who have put their children at risk with this product. There is also the possibility that these design problems are also present in the "On the Go" version of the Dozy Dolphin; if that version isn't currently imported into the EU, it wouldn't be addressed by their recall.
Ultimately, how Cloud b decides to respond will offer some insight into their capacity to confront safety issues in the phenomenally hazard-prone "bedtime" sector of the children's product market. ZRecs has worked with companies in the past, including Melissa & Doug, to help address consumer concerns regarding international recalls of products available in the U.S. You can read about our success in working with Melissa & Doug here.
We are not aware of any past recalls of Cloud b products in the U.S. or abroad as of this writing.
What you should do
If you own a Cloud b full-size Dozy Dolphin toy or an "On the Go" version of this toy, do not throw it away. We encourage you to remove it from the crib remove the batteries, and store it until Cloud b issues a statement. Keeping the product on hand ensures that (a) if a recall were to be issued, you would have the greatest chance of recourse; (b) if it is dangerous, it will not end up in another home; and (c) if it proves to be safe, you can begin using it again.
The company does not have a published customer service phone number (!) but you can email them with questions at cs@cloudb.com.
Breaking: Melissa & Doug, Imaginarium toys recalled in Canada appear to violate U.S. limits
By Jennifer | December 01, 2009 | 21 comments / Join the conversation!
Over the past few days, the internet has lit up with conversation about the November 20 Canadian recall of three Melissa & Doug toys - a Slice and Bake Cookie set, Shape Sorting Cube, and Pound a Peg pounding bench - which failed Canadian tests for barium limits in their paint. We only write detailed posts about recalls when we find them particularly newsworthy but there has been a lot of interest and concern among U.S. readers for this Canadian recall, so we started making inquiries last week, and we're ready to tell you something that is going to surprise you: Although the toys have only been recalled in Canada, all signs seem to suggest that these same toys also fail CPSIA standards for heavy metals, which went into effect in February 2009.
First, an aside: We would love to have our assessment of the situation confirmed with Melissa & Doug, but our six-day-old unanswered email and inability to get beyond the customer service desk this afternoon (a rep took our callback info but could not provide an estimated time frame for a return call or a name of the person we'd be put in touch with) confirm that we're on to something, and we think we're on solid footing. We'll edit liberally (with notes) if we have to, but here are the details as they currently appear.
Update: Since the publication of this post, we have been in communication with Doug Bernstein, President of Melissa & Doug, and have received the following statement from them regarding compliance with current U.S. standards (emphasis his): "What is the status of these items in the USA? The answer to that is simple and emphatic - These items absolutely pass EVERY single test in the USA. And yes, we have passing test reports for these from certified and scientific 3rd party testing laboratories, including those laboratories considered to be the most reputable in the world. These tests were done CONTEMPORANEOUSLY at the time of production, not after the fact."
Mr. Bernstein stated that the toys' failure in Canadian tests do not indicate that those specific toys or any toys would fail U.S. tests, as the two governments use a different testing protocol for barium. (Our inference from this is that the method used for extracting barium is different, which may yield different levels found.) However, in the course of our correspondence, we asked several questions which Bernstein declined to answer. After Bernstein excused himself from further correspondence, citing the holiday rush, we narrowed our request considerably and sent it to him with the explanation that we would be publishing this email for readers. Wewill post it shortly have posted it here and will keep readers informed of how Melissa & Doug chooses to respond.
This is what Canada has to say about the reason for limiting barium in children's products in the M&D recall announcement:
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act imposed not only limits on lead content but on other heavy metals, drawing its limits from an existing industry standard (ASTM F963-07e1, for those keeping score at home). Here's where they say as much.
The limits that will be enforced beginning in 2010, which we found in an unrelated company's test results here, appear to be (emphasis mine):
So, 1,000 parts per million (a rough translation of mg/kg).
Here's where things get interesting. Guess what Canada's current limit - the one Melissa & Doug's three toys failed - is? That's right. 1,000 mg/kg. (Thanks, Annie!)
Annie also made the keen observation that an Imaginarium Shape Sorting Cube (Toys 'R' Us' house brand) is a spitting image of the Melissa & Doug model. There are a couple of possible explanations for this. Either Melissa & Doug might contract with TRU to produce their Imaginarium toys, or that one in particular; or Toys 'R' Us buys that product from the same Chinese factory that Melissa & Doug does.
What does this mean for U.S. consumers? It means that actual, physical products that have been recalled in Canada for unsafe levels of barium do not meet current U.S. standards, although U.S. companies will not have to prove this until sometime next year, and then only for products manufactured after February 2009. (Toys on shelves now could conceivably have been manufactured before that date.)
Forgive us for being a bit cynical regarding the scope of the Canadian product recall, which covers toys sold between November 2008 and November 2009. We had a Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter for our daughter when she was an infant - probably purchased in 2004. Based on this recall, if we hadn't passed that toy on to Goodwill three years ago, I'd throw it out today. (November 2008 happens to be the date from which U.S. manufacturers were required to provide Certificates of Conformity for their products under the CPSIA. Coincidence? We'll see.)
(Update: Just remembered that it was that recall in part that spurred us to turn to Imagiplay for our 2009 Holiday Gift Guide's kitchen edition. We did not have access to the full story outlined here at that time, and have still received no return contact or information from Melissa & Doug.)
Melissa & Doug has a safety statement on their website (although, surprisingly, no section alerting consumers to recalls of their products). It reads, in part:
We'd love to see those test results.
This situation raises some great, and hairy, questions about the role of international recalls in U.S. consumers' perceptions of product safety. If you're interested in knowing when products that are sold in the U.S. are recalled in Canada or the European Union for failing their regulatory standards, we encourage you to follow ZRecs_Safety on Twitter - we've been tweeting info about Canadian and EU recalls of U.S. available products for several months now (including this one when it came out on Nov. 20), and would love to share them with you!
First, an aside: We would love to have our assessment of the situation confirmed with Melissa & Doug, but our six-day-old unanswered email and inability to get beyond the customer service desk this afternoon (a rep took our callback info but could not provide an estimated time frame for a return call or a name of the person we'd be put in touch with) confirm that we're on to something, and we think we're on solid footing. We'll edit liberally (with notes) if we have to, but here are the details as they currently appear.
Update: Since the publication of this post, we have been in communication with Doug Bernstein, President of Melissa & Doug, and have received the following statement from them regarding compliance with current U.S. standards (emphasis his): "What is the status of these items in the USA? The answer to that is simple and emphatic - These items absolutely pass EVERY single test in the USA. And yes, we have passing test reports for these from certified and scientific 3rd party testing laboratories, including those laboratories considered to be the most reputable in the world. These tests were done CONTEMPORANEOUSLY at the time of production, not after the fact."
Mr. Bernstein stated that the toys' failure in Canadian tests do not indicate that those specific toys or any toys would fail U.S. tests, as the two governments use a different testing protocol for barium. (Our inference from this is that the method used for extracting barium is different, which may yield different levels found.) However, in the course of our correspondence, we asked several questions which Bernstein declined to answer. After Bernstein excused himself from further correspondence, citing the holiday rush, we narrowed our request considerably and sent it to him with the explanation that we would be publishing this email for readers. We
This is what Canada has to say about the reason for limiting barium in children's products in the M&D recall announcement:
Some forms of barium are safely used in medical and commercial applications, while other forms of barium can be toxic, causing adverse health effects such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and cramps as well as more severe symptoms. Children's toys coated with paint containing barium in excess of the allowable limit are strictly prohibited in Canada.
The Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act imposed not only limits on lead content but on other heavy metals, drawing its limits from an existing industry standard (ASTM F963-07e1, for those keeping score at home). Here's where they say as much.
The limits that will be enforced beginning in 2010, which we found in an unrelated company's test results here, appear to be (emphasis mine):
Paint and other similar surface-coating materials applied to toys shall not contain compounds of which the metal content of the soluble material exceeds the levels by weight (mg/kg) of the contained solid including pigments, film solids, and driers [Antimony (Sb) 60, Arsenic (As) 25, Barium (Ba) 1000, Cadmium (Cd) 75, Chromium (Cr) 60, Lead (Pb) 90, Mercury (Hg) 60, Selenium (Se) 500]
So, 1,000 parts per million (a rough translation of mg/kg).
Here's where things get interesting. Guess what Canada's current limit - the one Melissa & Doug's three toys failed - is? That's right. 1,000 mg/kg. (Thanks, Annie!)
Annie also made the keen observation that an Imaginarium Shape Sorting Cube (Toys 'R' Us' house brand) is a spitting image of the Melissa & Doug model. There are a couple of possible explanations for this. Either Melissa & Doug might contract with TRU to produce their Imaginarium toys, or that one in particular; or Toys 'R' Us buys that product from the same Chinese factory that Melissa & Doug does.
What does this mean for U.S. consumers? It means that actual, physical products that have been recalled in Canada for unsafe levels of barium do not meet current U.S. standards, although U.S. companies will not have to prove this until sometime next year, and then only for products manufactured after February 2009. (Toys on shelves now could conceivably have been manufactured before that date.)
Forgive us for being a bit cynical regarding the scope of the Canadian product recall, which covers toys sold between November 2008 and November 2009. We had a Melissa & Doug Shape Sorter for our daughter when she was an infant - probably purchased in 2004. Based on this recall, if we hadn't passed that toy on to Goodwill three years ago, I'd throw it out today. (November 2008 happens to be the date from which U.S. manufacturers were required to provide Certificates of Conformity for their products under the CPSIA. Coincidence? We'll see.)
(Update: Just remembered that it was that recall in part that spurred us to turn to Imagiplay for our 2009 Holiday Gift Guide's kitchen edition. We did not have access to the full story outlined here at that time, and have still received no return contact or information from Melissa & Doug.)
Melissa & Doug has a safety statement on their website (although, surprisingly, no section alerting consumers to recalls of their products). It reads, in part:
Additionally, we specifically test our paints and coatings very frequently, to be sure our toys meet or exceed government recommendations limiting heavy metals and lead in children’s items. We have cabinets full of thousands of passing test reports, and these passing results have been verified by 3rd party independently accredited testing laboratories, considered by many to be the best scientific laboratories in the world.
We'd love to see those test results.
This situation raises some great, and hairy, questions about the role of international recalls in U.S. consumers' perceptions of product safety. If you're interested in knowing when products that are sold in the U.S. are recalled in Canada or the European Union for failing their regulatory standards, we encourage you to follow ZRecs_Safety on Twitter - we've been tweeting info about Canadian and EU recalls of U.S. available products for several months now (including this one when it came out on Nov. 20), and would love to share them with you!
JPMA certifies grizzly bear to industry crib standard
By Jeremiah | November 25, 2009 | 3 comments / Join the conversation!
The Juvenile Product Manufacturers' Association (JPMA) is pleased to announce that G'Night Grizzly, more commonly known as the grizzly bear or Ursus arctos horribilis, has met all applicable requirements for voluntary ASTM crib standard F1169 and has been certified as such through JPMA's rigorous certification process.
"G'Night Grizzly makes an excellent sleeping environment for infants," JPMA communications director Russ Gorman said in a press release Monday. "All moving parts have been proven to last through decades of use, and its breathing gently rocks infants to sleep. Furthermore, in this recessionary climate, the grizzly is a budget-friendly solution for parents, as it requires no mattress."
The G'Night Grizzly retails for $799 at WalMart, Babies 'R' Us, and national park gift shops, and is available in brown, deep red, blond, and in a limited edition in gray.
The JPMA vigorously contests the relevance of child injury data relating to the use of bears as infant sleeping environments. G'Night Grizzly easily passed all applicable federal and ASTM limits for claw protrusion and crushing strength.
Past infant injuries associated with grizzly-based bedding resulted from parents' failure to follow instructions attached to each G'Night Grizzley, which outline the restrictive diet and low indoor air temperatures necessary to keep the grizzly in hibernation mode. Yet several companies' proactive, voluntary recalls of previously marketed bears - for repair kits that ranged from a tranquilizer gun to several pounds of frozen salmon - clearly demonstrate that the juvenile product industry is more than capable of correcting for any missteps along the road of progress and innovation.
More than 2,000 products are JPMA Certified in 20 categories: bassinets/cradles, bath seats, booster seats, children’s folding chairs, portable bed rails, infant bouncers, high chairs, play yards/non-full size cribs, walkers, carriages/strollers, gates/enclosures, full-size cribs, portable hook-on chairs, infant swings, hand-held infant carriers, soft infant carriers, stationary activity centers, frame infant carriers, changing tables, and toddler beds.
The JPMA urges parents to seek out the JPMA Certification Seal when shopping for baby.
"G'Night Grizzly makes an excellent sleeping environment for infants," JPMA communications director Russ Gorman said in a press release Monday. "All moving parts have been proven to last through decades of use, and its breathing gently rocks infants to sleep. Furthermore, in this recessionary climate, the grizzly is a budget-friendly solution for parents, as it requires no mattress."
The G'Night Grizzly retails for $799 at WalMart, Babies 'R' Us, and national park gift shops, and is available in brown, deep red, blond, and in a limited edition in gray.
The JPMA vigorously contests the relevance of child injury data relating to the use of bears as infant sleeping environments. G'Night Grizzly easily passed all applicable federal and ASTM limits for claw protrusion and crushing strength.
Past infant injuries associated with grizzly-based bedding resulted from parents' failure to follow instructions attached to each G'Night Grizzley, which outline the restrictive diet and low indoor air temperatures necessary to keep the grizzly in hibernation mode. Yet several companies' proactive, voluntary recalls of previously marketed bears - for repair kits that ranged from a tranquilizer gun to several pounds of frozen salmon - clearly demonstrate that the juvenile product industry is more than capable of correcting for any missteps along the road of progress and innovation.
More than 2,000 products are JPMA Certified in 20 categories: bassinets/cradles, bath seats, booster seats, children’s folding chairs, portable bed rails, infant bouncers, high chairs, play yards/non-full size cribs, walkers, carriages/strollers, gates/enclosures, full-size cribs, portable hook-on chairs, infant swings, hand-held infant carriers, soft infant carriers, stationary activity centers, frame infant carriers, changing tables, and toddler beds.
The JPMA urges parents to seek out the JPMA Certification Seal when shopping for baby.
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