So… how do we know if we have items from the Fall 2007 line? I’ll have to double-check my son’s pjs.
PS: I love your blog and, frankly, you are amazing! I have a kid and I can barely remember to write things down on the calendar some days.

@Robyn: I believe in the photo on this post the one with the larger white box (the light blue onesie) is the Fall 07 label design. Compare it to the onesie above it in green onesie above it and you’ll see the difference in coverage area Carter’s pointed out to us.

Good Work, team ZRecs! Thanks for the research.

Have you heard of any reports concerning the Just One Year by Carter’s (Sold at Target) or the other Carter’s label sold at Wal Mart?

Where can we return the items if we have a problem?  Can we just bring them back to the store (I don’t have a receipt anymore) or does it have to go back to Carter’s directly?

Thanks ZRecs team! In you swoop again! Yahoo! Good for you writing that last section about bloggers writing about something and claiming it to be their own. Isn’t that the truth. Yahoo! I’m alerting my readers of your article pronto.

I recently purchased some outfits from Carter’s 2008 Fall line.  I put 2 of the 3 outfits on my daughter and she broke out in a rash with each outfit.  I happened to get an e-mail from someone the week before I put them on her about the tagless labels and the rashes so I knew to watch for it.  And sure enough…

How can we find out what items are part of the Fall 2007 clothing line?  Thanks for the information!

My son had the horrible burns/redness on his back while wearing clothes that were I’m guessing from the Spring 2008 line because they were shorts one piece outfits.  How do you know what line they were from?

@Jennifer and Amy: Carter’s stated to us that the Fall 2007 line had significant coverage of the plastisol ink, about 3x the ink used for later releases. I believe you can see this distinction in the image at the top of this post - the top green item has a smaller amount of white ink while the bottom blue one has much more. Do the labels on your child’s clothing match either of these designs?

We noticed a small red rash on my daughter’s upper back (born Oct ‘07) several times upon waking in the morning after wearing the tagless Carter’s.  We have -at least- 40 items from the Fall 2007 line that we were planning on passing down to the next baby - onsies, pjs, shirts, sleep and plays, gowns, etc - she was our first baby, the first niece and grandchild.  After hearing this story, the reports of other parents, and the Carter’s response, I have no interest in using the clothing again.  What recourse do we have?  This is hundreds of dollars of clothing.

Amy, Carter’s is accepting clothing back, I believe for a full refund. Contact them at 1-888-782-9548.

How do you know if the clothing is from the Fall 2007 line?  Do they indicate that on the outfit, or do you just need to know when it was purchased?  Have they pulled all this line from stores & outlet stores?

So basically any clothing with the big label then.  Thanks for clarifying!  I’m going to go through all of my clothes and pull all of those out to take back to Carter’s.

Thanks for reporting on this!  My son has eczema and one place that routinely breaks out, on and off, is his lower neck.  I never considered this could be reaction from his clothing.  I’m going to pay more attenion to what he’s wearing the next time it happens. 

Thanks!

Thank you so much for reporting on this. My 4 year old has had a scaly rash right where the tagless label is on her Hanes Disney Princess panties. It comes and goes. I could never figure out what it was from before now. The tagless label is black and about 3 inches wide!

Thank you so much for looking into this. My son has had rashes on his upper back and lower neck from tagless clothing (Carters, JOY/Circo from Target, Gerber, etc.) since he was born in 7/07.  We stopped using the tagless clothing altogether and the rashes cleared up.  I have recently tried a Carters onesie from the Fall ‘08 line and he hasn’t had any issues.  The big block surrounding the size is gone, which is what I think caused the rash. I hope they get this sorted out!

I contacted Carter’s and left a message.  This morning they returned my call and the woman told me that absolutely there are no phthalates in the ink formulation for the labels, nor anything harmful that could explain the irritation and red bumps that my daughter gets after contact with these tagless shirts.  I am highly skeptical of her answer, since it would be her job to say that.  My daughter has many of the smaller-sized labels which cause irritation as well.  I don’t believe the cause is merely the larger-sized labels.

What have the rashes looked like. Are they just right at the area where the tag is or are they diffuse across the area?

I am due in a couple months with baby #2. My other child has very sensitive skin so I don’t even want to give these “tagless tags” a chance to hurt my baby’s skin. I have a bunch of a clothes that fit the description (the larger label) that I got from a baby shower in the spring. However, due to nesting, I’ve removed tags and washed, folded and hung everything up. What do I say to the company? Based on “concernced mom’s” response to calling the company, what should we say to them when we call?
Thanks!!

Does anyone have any suggestions for brands that do NOT use tagless labels?  It seems everything my baby owns is tagless, no matter what the brand.

I had a similar thing happen to my daughter this past springtime. Im pretty sure it was the pjs and some onsies from the 07 line as well. It wasnt an extreme thing like the picture but redness and itching. I contacted carters they immediately sent me a postage paid pkg to send the clothes back in. They were going to give me a refund. My daughters rash seemed to go away and i tested the clothing out again and nothing much seemed to happen so i ended up not sending the stuff back. So I dont know why she had a reaction to the tags sometimes but not all the time. I noticed the tag on the current carters line is a different design not using as much of that plasticy ink.

Where are the pictures. I just found your blog and I would love to see the pictures. My son has some kind of a rash on is back too.

I agree with concernedmom, my son has been getting the same reaction from the fall 2008 line where the white around the number is gone. Poor babies!

Also, I have a few things from the Childrens Place that are not tagless. Unfortunately, I also have tagless things from there too. I think it’s hard to find onesies with tags these days.

I also contacted Carter’s and they are sending me a prepaid envelope to send back the items that gave my son a rash for a full refund.  They will not do a recall because she said this has only happened to a “select few children” It doesn’t seem that way to me.  This is a big deal, my poor son has a rash on his upper back/lower neck the exact shape and size of the tag and it’s not from the fall 2007 line as I stated in my previous response.

My son had a mild reaction and we finally determined that it was his Carter’s clothing.  They were very helpful and concerned when we contacted them.  I beleive we were one of the first 5 or so to contact them regarding this matter.  I returned all of his Carter’s clothes (used and some with tags) because I didn’t want to have to determine what was in the Fall 07 line.  They very quickly issued a full refund based on the MRP and also sent him a toy.  They have since followed up twice to see how he was.  It’s a bad situation, but I think Carter’s has responded as well as they could have.

My baby had the same rash as the online pictures starting a month ago. It was angry red and seeped clear liquid. I initially thought I used too much detergent. I took her to the doctor and told him the center of the rash is exactly where the postage-sized label was located.  It cleared up with bacitracin as per my pediatrician’s recommendation. It happened a couple more times so I stopped using the clothes with these tags as I thought she had a sensitivity to that label.  I put a halloween-themed outfit on her a few days ago with carter label that just had the letters, not the square tag. The rash started after an hour of my baby wearing it. Frustrated, I just googled to find out if there was a problem with these labels.

Quite honestly, I feel angry, upset and somewhat helpless. My baby was miserable when she had these rashes.  My concern is that like me, parents are attributing the cause of these rashes to other factors or just thinking their babies have sensitive skin ( and yes babies have sensitive skin).  I feel Carters needs to publicly acknowledge there is a problem. I called them and they say that certain babies have allergies to the labels and that there will be no recall.  They will take the clothes back however and reimburse you for them.  How can they take back the pain, discomfort and sleepless nights me and my baby had?

I’m worrying about the babies… I don’t want them to experience what my baby experienced.  We all need to contact the company and CPSC and make our concerns known.

my daughter just started having problems with the tagless onsies. she’s had problems with carter’s child of mine line as well as the regular tagless onsies. she also broke out severly with the jumping beans brand sold at kohls. it seems like they didn’t start to bother her until they had been washed a few times. it started as just a rash across her back and has become a large red raised area in the middle of her back. i already reported to CPSC and plan to call carter’s ASAP.

i just wanted to say- i just called carter’s and they were wonderful and helpful and they’re sending me the prepaid envelopes to return my stuff. they did seem like they were trying to downplay the whole thing, but still, they were very nice, and didn’t give me a hard time about anything- they just offered to send me prepaid boxes and give me a refund.

I had the same problem w/ Gerber Onesies and Carter’s tagless tags on my baby last spring.  I assumed the problem had been fixed and recently bought a Carter’s fleece (fall ‘08?) playwear suit and she had another reaction!  Last time I didn’t realize what it was for a few weeks and the rash got progressively worse but this time I caught it after a few hours of wear.  The tag is much thinner and smaller this time but it still has the same toxic stuff in it.  I just called the company and they said they hadn’t had any other calls about the new line (which I find hard to believe).  I am extremely disappointed that they weren’t concerned enough about the issue to change the labels to something that wouldn’t cause pain and suffering to the babies!  I will not be purchasing Carter’s products again!

I also took a photo of the rash this time but am not sure how to submit it?

I have a couple of questions for the other parents out there…

Has anything worked to clear up the rash? 

How long did it take for the rash to clear after you stopped using the tagless clothes?

Has anyone tried covering up the tagless label area with medical tape or some other barrier?

Has anyone received the refund from Carters yet?  How long did it take?

I used calendula cream by weleda and that helped to clear it up. My daughters rash wasnt nearly as bad as some of the pics i saw. Very red and itchy so she scratched it so much it started to bleed a little.
It took maybe a week to clear it up completely.
I never tried covering up the taggless area but that sounds like a good idea to try.
I didnt end up sending my clothes back to carters so i cant say about the refund.
Its wierd because i can put some of the same clothes on her now that broke her out back then and she dosent seem to have any sort of reaction.

I used cortisone cream (not if it is oozing) and it went away after about a couple of weeks.  I turn her onesies inside out if they are tagless.  Occasionally I have put soft medical tape or even a band-aid over the tag (not on baby’s skin.  My baby only seems to react to Carter’s and Gerber not Baby Gap or Circo.

Wow! This is really upsetting.  There was a strange rash on my baby’s back/neck that would come & go in her first 5 months. She would always be scratching the back of her neck and I never thought about it being a reaction from her Carter’s clothing! She is bigger now so we’ve been buying the newer line with no problems on the neck area. I called the Carter’s # and they are sending me something so that I can return the clothing.

that was just how my daughter was, scratching the back of her neck alot

I decided to search the internet for “baby back rashes” to figure out what could be causing my 8 month old daughters rash.  She has had it for about two weeks and her pediatrician wanted me to change from milk based formula to soy based formula to see if that would clear it.  So before I changed her whole diet, I started surfing the internet for information on baby back rashes. 

I was shocked when I found this information about the carter’s tagless rashes.  I just bought the onesies two weeks ago!  I have been using the little bundles onesies from old navy since she came home from the hospital and never had a problem.  When I went to buy them at old navy they were out of her size so I bought a bunch of carter’s 12 month onesies from babies r us.  Sure enough, she has a rash that spreads the whole top part of her back. 

I literally just changed her out of the onesie once I read this and then took a picture of her back.  I called carter’s customer service and their number is busy.  I will try again tomorrow.

I have several things from Carter’s, including the ones from the fall 07 line, and I have had no issue whatsoever.  I feel so sorry for those of you who have had issues.  I feel lucky that they do not affect my daughter in any way.  I do keep an active watch now to see if any reaction occurs, and you can bet I’ll be sending things back if anything ever does occur.

I stumbled on this article by mistake and I’m glad I did. My daughter had a bad rash from the Carter’s onesies a few months ago. I ended up patching over them with some cotton and fusible webbing and it solved the problem. We live in Amsterdam, so sending the clothing back for a refund would be very costly.

I log onto this website every couple of weeks to see what’s new, and I’m glad that I found this article. My 4 yr old has very sensitive skin, and I’ve notice this summer that his neck/back has been very itchy when wearing tagless shirts from Circo. He doesn’t have any from of Carter’s clothing, but I thought I’d just let people know that the problem could be more widespread.

a los angeles news station initiates an investigative report on issue: 

http://video.knbc.com/player/?id=716662

i wanted to add that the news station above is working on a follow up story...if you live in the SoCal area and you’ve had similar issues, please contact the investigative producer via the link!

Does anyone know if carter’s is giving refunds even if your baby doesn’t have a rash?  I’ve only got a couple of the ‘97 onesies which my son hasn’t worn yet (although I have washed) and don’t want to take any chances.

My youngest DD just broke out in the 3 days ago. Luckily I caught it quickly and immediately assumed it was the tags; I really feel for the families that suffered trying to find the prognosis. I am disgusted with Carters, which was my favorite children clothing until yesterday, why are they not recalling this? Why are they waiting for more and more babies to suffer? I’m sure there are more cases out there like ours that aren’t being attributed to the tags, but instead some random reaction to something else. This is NOT an allergic reaction, this is a chemical burn. I have dealt with severe, life threatening allergies with my first born, and I can guarantee this is NOT an allergy.

How are we supposed to believe them that it’s just the “Fall of 07” line when others are claiming the issue is still prominent? And by sending the clothes back for a refund, are they just buying people off?

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My 3 month grandaughter has an awfull chemicle burn on her back. this is not a rash or eczema this is a chemicle burn and as far as i’m concerned this and any other company that will send you money if you happen to complain knows there’s abig problem with the tagless clothing.My quistion is sinse they are paying off people,how far dose this have to go? dose your child have to die before they quit paying people off and find a solution?

While it is true that the Fall 2007 line (the one with the “postage-like” imprint) caused the worst reaction on my daughter’s skin, their other tags also caused a rash. I still kick myself for thinking it was eczema and trying to fix it by changing the foods I was introducing. Glopping on vaseline every night seemed to be the only solution. Until I found out that a lot of others had experienced the same thing. I’ve since contacted Carters, been issued a reimbursement (about $200 for two big bags of clothes), and have recently contacted CPSC as well. I’m sending you guys the pics I sent to
Carters.
The rep at Carters advised me to try their newer lines and see if the problem has gone away, but there is no way I’m taking that chance!

Don’t waste your time or money on the “newer line”. I took Carter’s word that the new stuff was fine, so we tried out a few of this year’s Fall stuff. Rash is back! Not as bad as before, but back, nonetheless!!! My DD seems to have a slight reaction with almost every tagless product we use and is just fine in anything with a regular tag. Now the fun of finding clothes that have a good ol’ fashioned tag....

i just got off the phone with carters.

they will send u a postage paid envelope for u to mail back the clothes with the larger tagless tag on it. then they will send u a check as a refund

I said it before but for those of you who didn’t read it, the newer ‘08 tags still caused a reaction on my baby’s skin.  I am dismayed that they have neither fixed the problem nor had any recalls.  When I called to tell them about the rash for the new line they actually had the nerve to tell me they had not had any problems!  I am normally a very laid back type mom but this has me outraged.  We should band together to get this info on our local and national news stations.  Carter’s should take responsibility for their inaction.  What do you say?  Moms unite!

You know,even if they don’t want to issue a mass recall (claiming “it’s only a few kids who have reactions")you would think a company like Carter’s would at least issue some kind of public announcement so all parents could decide whether or not to return the clothes. At least then there wouldn’t be lots of parents out there still wondering where the weird rash is coming from. And you know there is probably plenty of ‘07 stuff still in circulation that has been donated to thrift stores and relative hand me downs that has yet to be used and cause a new round of rashes...Considering how many things are recalled for lesser offenses, it is amazing this has gone almost unnoticed.

WOW! I cant belive this. Carters is telling everyone that only a few have had this, but from what I am hearing, there is hundreds. I have no respect for carters for their lack of action. are they going to refund all my cloths to the penny or sum it up to what they think, beacuse cloths are expensive and the doctor bills are even more. so wheres that check to my doctor!? Is anyone else experienceing child of mine and just one year causeing the same thing. if so, its just diapers for my daughter for now.

For those who’ve already received their refund from Carter’s, how long did it take to get it? About 2 weeks ago I sent a big box of ALL our Carter’s clothes that had the specified tags (there were a BUNCH from our baby shower and some we’d already purchased, etc.). Our baby is due pretty soon and we could really use that money to replace the clothes we sent back! Just curious if I should stop expecting/hoping it to come any day now if it’s going to be another several weeks.

The refund should only take about two weeks, so hopefully any day now for you! I just wish I had great advice to offer as to where to get safer baby clothes w/o breaking the bank! I know some Old Navy, Gap and Children’s Place still have some items with real tags, but not many. Babies R Us has a few lines that might work, now that I think about it. Maybe Koala Kids?

I just wanted to say that I did not send back my Carter’s clothes.  Since just about everything we have is tagless and most of it is Carter’s, I wouldn’t have had anything left to put my son in.  Instead, I just bought some wide medical tape and I have taped over the tag imprint.  This seems to do the trick perfectly and we have been able to continue to use all of our baby clothes.

Thanks so much for spreading the word.  I have changed laundry detergent over and over not knowing where the rash was from.
I never would have guessed it was the tag.

The law firm ‘ Emerson Poynter LLP” in Little Rock is investigating these tagless injuries from Carter clothes. Below is the info if you want to share your story…

1-800-663-9817

I am having this problem as well!  My 6 month old daughter has had a rash on her back right in the dead center underneath her neck for about 2 months.  It has gradually gotten worse and now is painful for me to look at.  Over half of her clothing is this tagless Carter’s stuff.  Turns out her rash is in the exact spot as these tags!  I’m so angry that they have put my daughter in so much discomfort!

Here’s the thing: My son has really sensitive skin, and yet he doesn’t seem to be reacting to the few Carter’s clothes we have. We have some regular Carter’s and then a few the first years. Should I yank the clothes from the rotation? Cover them with fabric tape? Just keep on keepin’ on? Any thoughts?

This has happened to us!  I can’t believe how widespread it is!  Carters response to us was that it was “rare” but it’s not if so many parents’ babies are affected.  Our poor daughter at 3 months old had to be hospitalized in a sterile room b/c her rash-burn was so bad and was on IV antibiotics. I have the pictures too of her back and want to share them with this community.  It was only after finding this blog and seeing the pictures, did I realize that the Carters tagless labels caused it!  Please let me know where to send our pictures as I think pictures speak a thousand words.  I am speaking to an attorney about this problem and urge other parents to band together to force Carters to recall this product before other innocent children and babies are painfully affected.  They wanted us to return our clothes for a refund but I am keeping them so they can be reviewed by a separate expert or just in case I need it later.  I truly believe Carters is trying to hide this issue and it’s NOT fair to the public, especially since these clothes are still being sold!

Some brands I have found with tags are Gymboree, Janie & Jack, Koala Baby (babies r us), Mini Wear.

I’ve just bought tons of Carter’s items for my new baby nephew in Australia, and was about to mail the package when I heard about this.  I am definitely pulling out those with the big labels made in China. I also have some with the big labels made in Thailand, and several with the small labels (like the one on the green shirt above). Have you had problems with these too? Have you had problems with other tagless brands? I don’t want to cause a rash for a newborn baby! Advice on “safe” brands would be appreciated since I’m not a Mom. Thanks!

Ellen- my son had problems with the smaller tags as well.

My son didn’t react to any of the Carter’s clothing but he is reacting with a postage-sized rash with BabyGap.

I heard about this story on Carter’s tagless clothing on my local news (NBC 11) mid-week of last week. I have a 5 month old son who I’ve noticed the same similar red rash also on my son’s upper back just beneath his neck line where Carter’s tagless stamp lied, but I didn’t know that the cause was coming from Carter’s tagless though. I thought my son’s Dreft laundry detergent was getting mixed in with one of my neighbors laundry detergent, but glad you took the time and came out to the public. Most all of my son’s wardrobe is by Carter’s tagless and so I’m planning on calling Carter’s to complain, but also hoping that they will reimburse me for the hundreds of dollars I spent with their company. Carter’s bibs/pants comes with the actual tags I’m not sure why they don’t do the same with tops (i.e. onesis, sweaters, shirts, undershirts). Lastly, my son has been wearing none Carter’s long sleeve onesis that his back is currently healing. I did take a picture of my son’s red rash when it was medium bad and to keep the rash from drying out I use Aveeno’s body lotion for newborn babies.

I was dumb enough to send in my batch of Carter’s clothes.  The Carter’s rep had told me that I would be reimbursed full retail value-- however, I received my check today and I have received less than 50% of the full retail value of these clothes.  It’s not even about the money-- no amount can undo my child’s discomfort, and time spent going to dr’s appts, using creams, and changing the diet-- trying everything to try to eliminate the rash. 

I don’t care about the clothes- they couldn’t be used anymore, period.  They are unsafe.  So I don’t care that I sent them back.  It’s the principle-- Carter’s lied about refunding at full retail value.

concerned mom: I’m in the same “boat”. After waiting 3 weeks and still no refund, I called Carter’s yesterday to see when I could expect a refund. They told me they were just waiting on accounting to send out the check. I asked her what the amount was and it was about half of what the MSRP is. AND, most of the clothing was brand new! I got it from my baby shower...some of them still had the tags on. Most others had clipped tags and had been washed once (in preparation for baby’s arrival). Fortunately, my baby never had to experience a rash, because I read this first, but it’s really frustrating that I can’t just go out and recoup my losses from all the clothing.

I just got off the phone with Carter’s. The representative I spoke too was very understanding about my concerns and said the company is looking into alternatives to the current ink formula for use in the future. Until then my son will be wearing clothing with tags. As his closet was pretty bare once I took out the tagless Carter’s stuff, I found some tagged clothing at Target (from the Classic Pooh by Disney line) as well as some super cute outfits from Old Navy. He’s still lacking onsies to go with all his pants tho, have to scout some with tags from some place now.  Hopefully the refund check from Carter’s will come soon to cover some of the costs!

Please check out Old Navy too as this used to happen when my daughter wore their tagless PJs!!

The day after I posted my first comment on #63 I had gone to Macy’s an attempt to buy a whole new wardrobe for my 5 month old son that is none Carter’s tagless, but then I was shocked to find out that majority of the racks of clothes that Macy’s carried were all Carter’s tagless and yes, they were the 2007 line (lots of them) with the solids tagless tags as seen above in the square pictures (blue one).  I almost fainted.  If Carter’s don’t “recall” more babies are going to suffer.  Not only does Macy’s carry Carter’s tagless, but other retailers such as Target, Wal-Mart, Babies R Us, Ross, TJ Max and so on carries Carter’s tagless.

I had called Carter’s earlier this morning and made a complaint against their tagless tops and mentioned about my son’s rash on his neck/back and was asked series of questions regarding my son, which the rep sounded somewhat concerned and was asked how many outfits I was sending them back because the amount depended on the size of pre-paid envelopes the rep was going to send me.  I replied, “About 70,” which the rep was shocked.  The rep was like, “70?!?” I, then had to explain to the rep that my son’s whole wardrobe is all Carter’s tagless and had to tell the rep that I bought some as well as I got them from my baby shower.  So, the rep is going to send me 2 pre-paid envelopes instead of 1 and was told that I would get reimbursed.  Also, I was told that if I had any other Carter’s tagless and wasn’t comfortable that I should send it along with other tops.
The funny thing is that the rep also mentioned that the rash came from their 2007 line, but my son also wore their Carter’s 2008 tagless line for 6m’s long sleeved white onesis, which he broke into a rash also.  Has anyone else experienced anything different with the 2008 line?  So, I’m basically going to send them all 70 Carter’s tagless tops an exchange for a reimbursement.

Lastly, I had called the Consumer Public Safety Commission right after I had called Carter’s and filed a complaint with them against Carter’s.  I’m just hoping that Carter’s will do a “recall” and take these unsafe clothes out of retail stores because if they don’t more babies will suffer and Carter’s should be held 110% responsible for all of our babies rashes/sores.

Hello, has anyone heard anything about tagless items from THE GAP? I noticed the picture on this blog has GAP clothing. The reason I ask, is I am pregnant and our baby is due in December. Many of the BABY GAP items we have been getting are tagless. I contacted the GAP and they said that all of their items are safety-tested. But the tagless items look exactly the same as the tagless items from Carters, especially the newborn. I see that someone above used medical tape to cover the tagless items, but do you think it would help to sew a piece of cloth over the tagless area or can the chemicals still seep through?

Well, we didn’t get anywhere with Carters today.  We went in hopeful last week that they would be willing to resolve this in good faith, but we were sloughed off to their insurance company (Travelers) and the Travelers representative said she didn’t have any of our information and in fact just got our phone number yesterday!!!  We ended up calling Carters and have our situation elevated to the Consumer Affairs Manager.  She listened and we were frustrated by hearing the same answers that her “hands are tied” “I understand”...but no resolution.  We don’t know if they will really call us back like she said.  However, NBC is doing a follow up story to the one aired last week and I would urge anyone who has information to contact the investigative reporter-producer. Let me know if you want his contact information.

Carters is a public company.  Their quarterly earnings call is next Tuesday.  Here is the link:

http://phx.corporate-ir.net/phoenix.zhtml?c=135392&p=irol-IRHome

I wonder if Carters will finally disclose this material information to the public—that their Carters Tagless clothes is injuring babies!  They should!

This is horrible!!!! Please keep me posted on Carter’s responsiveness to this child safety issue. Why hasn’t there been recall? This sounds like a class action lawsuit to me...aren’t there any lawyers out there who want to help these babies?? I think I’ll forward this blog to Carter’s primary shareholders.

Dear Robert and everyone who has posted:

I share your frustration and frankly your fear and helplessness in protecting your baby. My daughter endured several reddened and weepy rashes/burns in August/September. I was reduced to tears yet again when I put a “Child of Mine"( which is a Carter product with lettering as a tag) top on my child only to find the redness had returned just a few short hours later.

When I called Carters they said b/c my baby had reacted to the old Carter tags that she probably is “sensitive” to the “Child of Mine “ top. They have two different tags but from the same umbrella company.  I told her my baby doesn’t react to any other baby clothes! Only Carters and Child of MIne!!!

I fear that there are countless babies out there being exposed to this b/c their mothers, pediatricians are thinking the redness is caused by other factors.

Everyone needs to call the company, call the CPSC, call BabiesRUS, Target, Mervyns, and any other retailer that sell these clothes and most of all tell every MOM and DAD you know....

A law firm that is investigating…

1-800-663-9817

My daughter has had a rash on her neck for about two months now and when I asked her Pedi about it he recommended I change her soap, which had no effect on the rash.  I tried lotions and creams and nothing seemed to clear it up, though it didn’t get any worse either.  A friend of mine mentioned that it could be a reaction to the ink in the tagless clothes we get from Carter’s (where most of her clothes are from) and at first I didn’t really believe it.  Two days later however and it became apparent that my friend was right, my daughter woke up with a bright red rash the exact same size and shape of the tagless tag on her shirt.  I’ll try to attach a picture…

http://i65.photobucket.com/albums/h227/Juhlman79/HPIM1838.jpg

Hey Jules - That’s the same exact rash that my 5 month old son currently has.  Let me upload his picture onto photobucket for all to see too.

Here is the direct link:
http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp155/Cooper67/Pic16.jpg

It’s a bit blurry, but it’s clearly obvious that my son has a bad rash on his back due to Carter’s tagless clothing.  I put Aveeno baby: Daily Moisture Lotion right after his bath from him drying out plus it’s fall season.  I have been keeping a close eye on his rash, which look like it’s trying to heal, but a slow process and if it get worse I’m planning on calling his Pediatrician to see what she says in all of this.

My baby has not had problems w/ Gap or Circo but has w/ ALL Carter’s 2007 AND 2008 and Gerber’s.  Does anyone have a list of the numbers or websites for the retail stores that sell these products?  We could all ban together and create a form letter and send it to them.  Obviously, we are not being heard by Carter’s.  We want these products taken off the shelves!

Also, if you haven’t called spoken to your pediatrician, you should make sure they know where the rash came from so they can help diagnose new cases better.  Be sure to tell your friends and expecting moms not to buy these products any more so they don’t harm any more babies.

Hey Lisa - It is definitely the same rash.  I actually have a recommendation for you....we put Earthly Baby Miracle Oil Healing Formula on my daughters rash and by the next day it was almost completely healed.  I would be careful with lotions because I know once irritated skin can be extra sensitive and I know with my daughter at least the lotions were making it worse.  Anyway, here’s a link to the healing oil I mentioned so you can see what it looks like....
http://www.aveyou.com/earthlybodymiracleoil1floz.aspx
I hope your sons rash clears up soon!

Thanks Jules for letting me know regarding the Earthly Baby Miracle Oil Healing.  I’m gonna see if Amazon, Whole Foods store or maybe Elephant Pharmacy carries the item and will buy it from there.  Also, thanks for giving me some tips regarding the lotion.  I’m a new mom this yr so I do appreciate all the tips I’ve been getting.

As for Carters, they sent me a package from Wisconsin via Overnight Fedex.  Carter’s sent me a toy for my son, 2 pre-paid envelopes to send back all of my son’s wardrobe (About 70+) and enclosed a letter from the rep I directly spoke to yesterday (10/16/08).

The letter says the following:

Dear Lisa,

Thank you again for contacting us about your upsetting experience.  Carter’s is very concerned about the problem you’ve experienced with your garments.  Thankfully, your son is fine.  We share your concern and your relief.  Enclosed you will find a postage paid envelope to return the garments to us and a small stuffed animal for (son’s name) to let you know how sorry we are.  Once we have received the garments, we will send you a reimbursement check.

Carter’s does have very stringent quality control procedures in place.  Since safety of our products is of the highest importance to us, we want to be sure that nothing escapes our strict controls.  As we discussed, I have made our quality assurance team aware of our conversation.  Thank you again for taking the time to make us aware.

If you have any further questions or concerns, please don’t hesitate to contact me at 888-782-9548.

I’m gonna leave the reps name out, but that’s what I got.

I’m planning on keeping Carter’s pants because they have the actual “tags” on them, but as for the tops (i.e. onesis, shirts, sweaters, undershirts) is what I’m going to send back.  I’ll keep you guys updated on this.

Note to Allie - That’s what I thought about Carter’s tagless 2008 line too even though I was strictly told by the rep yesterday that it was only their 2007 line.  Not only did I notice his rash when he was just 3 months old, but when he was wearing Carter’s tagless 6m’s white long sleeved onesis is when his rash started getting worse as seen in the picture in post #74.
Here are the numbers to the retailer stores that I know that still carries Carter’s tagless 2007/2008.

Ross:
http://www.rossstores.com/cu.aspx
TJ Maxx:
http://www.tjmaxx.com/faq.aspx
Target:
http://www.target.com/b/ref=br_bx_0/601-6380031-3981704?ie=UTF8&node=3370571
Macy’s:
http://www1.macys.com/service/index.jsp

Carters told us yesterday that they cannot do anything until they’re “done investigating.” The manager of their Consumer Affairs said they don’t have the answers—well, you don’t need ALL the answers—just get the darn clothes off the market immediately until Carters “completes” the investigation!  I would think all of the pictures and stories speak for themselves. It seems Carters wants to continue to make money off the backs of our babies (literally) and as consumers, we should really be up in arms about this situation.  I was compelled to create my own blog out of frustration from how cavalier Carters treated us and the rest of the public:

http://avastaglesshorrorwithcarters.blogspot.com/

Thanks Lisa.  I’ve been trying to contact Carter’s today myself, but so far am not getting an answer.  I’m going to keep trying though.  It’s a bit overwhelming because I love Carter’s brand so MOST of my daughters clothes are tagless. 

Oh, an no problem about the lotion.  I’m a new mom this year too, though my daughter is ten months so a little older.  My family has a lot of problems with our skin being sensitive to a lot of products, so lotions, scented soaps, laundry detergent, and perfumes tend to give us problems.  My daughters pedi told me to try to buy her hypoallergenic soaps and to not use lotion on her.  Also, we can only use Dreft for her clothes, and I have to be careful with Diaper Rash cream because it will help clear up the rash but then actually cause her to get another one.  I was excited when the Miracle Oil worked on her rash without causing another reaction, I think I’m going to keep a bottle around now for future use instead of lotions. 

Anyway, thanks for sharing the info you got back from Carter’s!  Hopefully they’ll be as helpful when I get ahold of them later.

My baby also had the problem only with Carters and Gerber, not with BabyGap, or Childrens Place, or OshKosh tagless tags. That was until I just tried some OldNavy pajamas: the rash came back.
My theory is that it is the white inked part of the tag that is causing the issue. I’ve not had problems with tags that don’t have that unnaturally super white outline or background. I wish there was some science out there to get to the bottom of this!
I’ve already spoken to Carters and will now contact Old Navy to see if they have any further insight.

My daughter started developing this red skin irritation on her back when she was about three months old. My wife & I couldn’t figure out what was causing it. We tried different lotions, creams, bath soaps, etc… but nothing seemed to work. We took her to the pediatrician hoping to get some answers, and their initial thought was that she had excema. They referred us to a dermatologist. He gave us some mild steroid creams to treat the irritation. When we first started using it, the irritation seemed to go away, but would eventually come back. We ended up making three more visits to the dermatologist because the irritation still would not go away. They then suggested that we do a biopsy to find out exactly what the problem was. Not knowing what the cause was, my wife & I agreed that the biopsy should be done so that we could determine if there was a more serious problem. At this same time, we realized that perhaps a particular tagless onesie was part of the problem as she started wearing them at 3 months, when the back issue arose.  Within a couple of days, the dermatologist called us and said that it was a contact dermatistis and agreed that the tag was causing our daughter to have a reaction to the rubber-type tags in her clothing. We immediately stopped using that type of clothing, and the problem went away. Unfortunately a couple of weeks later it returned. We were frustrated & puzzled because we had not put our daughter in any of the clothing with the rubber-type tags. We went to the internet looking for answers & found the KNBC news report on the couple in L.A. having the exact same problem our daughter was having, and that it seemed to be Carter’s tagless clothing that was causing the problem. We’re planning on contacting Carter’s regarding this incredibly frustrating issue. Not only do we want a full refund, but we feel that we should be reimbursed for the medical expenses we had to pay. Has anyone else saught reimbursement for medical expenses from Carter’s?

I believe someone on this other tagless blog was reimbursed for dr.’s visits.  If you look through the postings you should find one.  If you do get reimbursed for a dr.’s visit please let us know as I am sure many of us have had this expense (including myself) from using these products.
Good Luck.
http://dld123.com/q&a;/index.php?cid=5762

Also, thanks to Lisa for the retailer’s info.

To the mom who asked if this was happening with other clothes-yes-my daughter has reacted to every tagless underware we have tried from Gap and Hannah Anderson (which is organic cotton but they just started using tagless tags which is who knows what). The only big girl underware we have found that works is Hello Kitty Saniro brand from Target because it is the only underware we found that actually still has a tag! Target also carries Hanes which is now tagless so that is going back to the store too!!! I don’t even want to try them after our experience with the other two brands.

We missed all of the tagless infant clothes as she was born in 06 so I feel awful for all of you with newborns facing this issue. I wouldn’t use one iota of this clothing until finding out why anyone is having a skin reaction to it. What is it anyway!

We have just sent a letter to the Carters Executive team. You can see the letter on our website. We will keep everyone posted if they respond.

Dear Eric,

To answer your question on medical reimbursements, we tried with Carters but we were sloughed off to their insurance company, Travelers. The process will involve signing over your child’s medical records and allowing Traveler’s unlimited access to your baby’s medical history. We were told this would be time consuming as they will run an investigation (e.g. take doctors’ statements, look at your records, and run their own analysis). We are not pursuing this avenue at this time. We would rather Carters disclose the hazard to the public and recall their defective clothes. Good luck.

I thought of posting few more pictures of my son’s back that I took 2 days ago, which is a lot more clearer than the one I posted few days ago.

Also, I’m stopping by the Post Office on Monday to drop off 2 Pre-paid envelopes to mail Carter’s back all 79 tagless garments that caused my son to break out in a rash as seen in the pictures. 

See links below:
http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp155/Cooper67/M.jpg
http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp155/Cooper67/M2.jpg
http://i407.photobucket.com/albums/pp155/Cooper67/M3.jpg

This fellow Mommy-Blogger sheds light on how Carters has known about this problem. They have been getting reports of this hazard for a year now. This means our babies suffered unnecessarily, a simple public warning would have prevented their injuries.

Here is her blog update:
http://www.scienceforsale.com/2008/10/carters-tagless-burns-updates.html

One of the women in my online mommy’s group pointed me to this article after I posted about my son’s skin burn from his jammies.  Just today I found a skin burn from his Carter’s fleece blanket sleeper.  I have seen that he has had reactions before but they were more eczema-like, just flakey and dry.  Last week we put him in an old Carter’s cotton footed sleeper (from 2005 or 2006) which had real tags.  Last night after his bath we put him in the blanket sleeper as the temps here are dropping into the 20s and 30s overnight.  With no contact to the tag imprint junk for the last few days, it must have made his reaction so much worse because his skin was oozing directly under the tag imprint and there was a 4-6” circle of irritation which included hives and skin flakes around that burn.  I have pictures but it does not appear that I can attach them.  I will be contacting Carter’s to give them an earful, but wanted to post here as well.  I will be sure to use my word-of-big-mouth to tell everyone I know about this situation to help other’s avoid it.  My poor little guy…

From a suggestion on another blog I have decided to report this issue to Consumer Reports @ ConsumerReports.org.  It is very easy:  At the bottom of their web page you’ll find an option to “Report a Safety Problem” then in a paragraph click on the blue highlighted “inform us”.  If we all did this perhaps CR will listen and this will put pressure on these slow to act companies.  Here is the letter I wrote:
My infant and many other children have had severe reactions to Carter’s & Gerber’s tagless tags on their clothing resulting in painful blisters, a persistent rash, irritation and visits to the doctor.  Many doctors are unaware of the problem and are diagnosing these children w/ allergic reactions to viruses or other environmental (as my own doctor did) factors.  These companies (especially Carter’s) have had many complaints as you can see on the following blogs:http://dld123.com/q&a;/index.php?cid=5762 ,http://www.zrecommends.com/zrecommends/detail/carters-responds-to-zrecs-inquiry/.  Many of these incidents have also been reported to the CPSC w/ out results.  Carter’s continues to downplay the issue and still has clothing you can buy at the store today w/ tagless tags that are causing serious rashes/burns on babies’ skin. I urge you to investigate this issue as Carter’s is an extremely popular & affordable clothing choice for parents of small children and many are unaware that these tags are the cause of painful, burning rashes on their children.  If I can offer more information please feel free to contact me via email.  Sincerely, Allie

YAY!!! it’s about time....
http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml09/09023.html

Hey Amy - Thanks for posting the link above.  I’m going to send it to my family and friends who will then pass it on to their friends and family.

I sent back all 79 garments to Carter’s on Monday, October 20, but haven’t received the reimbursement or heard from them yet.  I hope I do soon.  My 5 month old son still has a rash on his back, which is healing very slowly.  I did purchase the natural oils that one other parent recommended me.  I’m still waiting for the item to arrive.

Amy, Lisa, and everyone else - we posted about the CPSC action today… click on the masthead to get to the newest posts. Guess we should add a note at the top of this one!

Our son, born in March 08, has had a severe red rash on his back for months and we suspected the tags but not until the recall came out did we put it together that the tagless clothes could be the problem.  We think the Gerber PJs could be the worst.  He has been on a high dosage of prescription steroid cream to try to get rid of the red rash to no avail.  When the recall came out we stopped using the Gerber pjs and the rash has gotten remarkeably better!  I have noticed that not many of his recent clothes are from the fall 2007 line but he does wear Circo, Gerber, Carters, Gymboree and Gap all of which are tagless, so we arent sure which ones are the problem.  It will be interesting to hear more.

Just FYI- I posted several days ago after searching locally for old fashioned onesies with tags to no avail. Another poster suggested Spasilk onesies. I searched online and found them through Google at Toys R Us/Babies R Us (the babies r us near me only had tagless in the store). The Spasilk were available online only and are 3 in a pack for $9.99. Never thought I would be so excited to see a tag on an article of clothing.

my daughter has a rash from ALL of carters tagless clothing fall 07 - fall/winter 08). i’m very frustrated. i absolutely love their clothing. i hope they stand behind their clothing and recall all of it and change their tags!!

Thank you so much for all of the info on the Carter’s tagless clothing.  I had heard a report on my local Fox 2 News about 3 weeks ago about this, but did not think about it.  My daughter (13 months) developed a rash on her back yesterday.  I could not figure out what it was from, until I realized that she was wearing the Carter’s tagless bodysuit and the rash was localized to only her upper back and neck area.  I immediately looked online for more info and came across the zrecommends.com site.  I have called both Carter’s and CPSC.

how many clothes did you guys have to mail in/what amount of money did you get back?

I was shopping at Target the other day and I was happy to see that the majority of their baby clothes now have real old fashioned tags that you can cut out.  I guess the message is out there and Target is responding.  However, the exception was the Carter’s clothes, they still haven’t changed their tags yet.

Mel,
I had a ton of clothes to send back...many/most were brand new without the tags (was getting ready to have a baby and had washed everything). I only got about half the retail value back. Very disappointing because I couldn’t fully replace what I had sent back.

Note to Green and Mel:

I used to post my comments here, but lately I’ve been posting comments on the newer forum by going here:

http://www.zrecommends.com/zrecommends/detail/cpsc-releases-rash-advisory-for-carters-tagless-apparel/

Note to Green - You shouldn’t be receiving half retail value back, but instead you should be receiving the full retail value back.  You should definitely complain to Carter’s again because on their actual website at:

http://www.carters.com/Corporate/tagless_message.aspx

Check out the last question and Carter’s tell you that if you’re not satisfied with their clothes you will get a full refund not half retail value.

My son was affected by Carter’s tagless and had sent back all 79 garments, which I’m suppose to receive my full retail refund of $607 sometime today or tomorrow, which is about right since I’ve spent half of the amount on my own while other family members have spent the other half plus we all had to pay tax so I’m very happy with my full retail refund that I’m getting.

A question for those of you who sent back multiple articles of clothing:  Did you have to call list each individual item when talking to Carters?  Or did you just get return envelopes and jam them full of clothes?

Steph:
I just told them how many sets of outfits I had, and they said they would send postage paid envelopes. I received a postage paid label with a teddy bear the next day from them, no envelopes. I called to see if I could just use the label they sent on a box I had, they said that is no problem.

I called today for an update on the status of the refund and the representative said they will be sending a check off in the next few days for $147 (sounds about what the retail value was of everything).

I am so mad at this situation. My son now 1 has constantly been breaking out in a rash on his neck since I can remeber. I have taken him to the doctors on severral ocasions and they kept telling me it was eczema. So then I kept paying money to keep taking him to the doctors and then pay for their medications. I was always hesitiaing to put anything on it. Then when I heared of the recall I was very upset when I went to look at my sons clothes that we were planning on saving for hand me downs for future children and come to find out almost all his clothes have been Carter’s. Ever since I stopped using the line his neck has been fine. I’m so upset that I have spent so much money on clothes and doctors I’m ready to make a lawsuit out of this. What kind of company gets away with this! These are our children!

I am also extremely upset about this. I just realized today...after many ointments and creams, tests, Dr. visits, hours researching fungus, eczema, hemangiomas etc.. as my baby was sitting on my lap in only a onesie- which is rare- I see that the GERBER baby head tagless tag was sitting on his skin in the exact spot of his lesion..same shape, exact size. It finally all made sense! I look up on the web and Wha-la!.. hundreds of mothers complaining of the same thing! How could this happen?? I feel pissed, betrayed and hurt. You think that you are doing the best for your baby by buying GERBER or CARTER- just knowing that they have tested and re-tested their products to make sure they are safe for our precious children. APPARENLY NOT! I second the lawsuit comment above. You can bet your asses, ladies, something will be done about this.

Cecily & Gina,
I just saw your posts and am so sorry to hear about your babies.  Just wanted you to know there is a class action lawsuit filed against Carters.  If you want the attorneys’ information or to see a copy of the court filed complaint, please email me (my blog website profile has my email address).  I empathize with your frustration and anger as our daughter endured excruciating pain from their tagless clothes and yet no recall.  There are many babies nationwide who’ve been affected; unfortunately you’re not alone.  I wish you luck in getting through this terrible experience.

Thank you so much, Cecily. I am so sorry to hear of your daughter’s horrendous story. I hope she is healing physically as well as you all emotionally. I feel lucky to have caught this relatively quickly on my little guy but can’t stand the thought of this happening to other babies. Do you happen to know if there is one filed for Gerber? or Circo?

Hi-
I came across these posts and wanted to add my thoughts.  My daughter has had the same reactions to tagless clothing.  Carters’ did offer to give me a full refund for the clothing but I wasn’t sure what to do since her entire closet is full of Carter’s clothing.  I literally would have been left with nothing and no idea what to put her in since most clothes are tagless.  I have to ensure that I put a tshirt under all her clothes that are tagless (fortunately my grandmother makes her t’s that i can use).  But, my real purpose in writing this is that Carter’s still claims that the reactions are only limited to the Fall 07 line. NOT TRUE!  I recently wrote them again regarding the labels used after FALL 2007 that were round as my daughter had a reaction to those as well.  I was interested to see that a class action suit is being considered.  I wish it were easier to find clothing with tags these days.  I never thought I could get so excited over something like that.  I wish you all luck in working through this.

HOLY CRAP!!! I had no idea about the tagless issue.  My daughter is almost 7 months old and wears Carter’s almost exclusively.  She has had a rash in the middle of her back and this entire time we just thought it was dry skin. What makes me aggravated is that I just bought almost $200 worth of clothes at the Carter’s outlet to get my daughter through the rest of winter/spring and summer.  It would have been nice if the stores could at least acknowledge there has been a persistent issue and what to do if you had a problem.  I honestly feel I should take it all back.  Thanks to everyone that posted.

Gymboree makes non-skid socks with latex dots. my daughter has developed a very itchy reaction on the soles of her feet with raised bumps exactly where those “dots” are on the socks. it’s so itchy it wakes her up in the night. anyone else have this problem with non-skid socks? i bought about 8 pairs of them, so she’s been wearing them everyday for a couple weeks now.

Could we start another discussion page about this?  I would love to know what brands people are finding that still have tags.  I am not finding much right now at Target or Kohls- everything seems to be tagless!

I am a tough-skinned, 65 year old grandma. The reason I am here is that I have had a terrible pain and itching for over a year, and it just occurred to me that the ironed on tag in Hanes shirts may be the problem, so it was a eureka moment when I found this site. I do not have open sores, nor a continuous pain, but at unrelated times, I have an intense itching and/or pain just where my left hand can reach. Sometimes it begins like someone sticking a darning needle in my shoulder. I am horrified to learn that so many babies have been suffering far worse than I. These tags are also in White Stag and George brands from WalMart.Please keep up the fight against these companies who do not do their proper investigation. Are theystill sewing tags on with plastic thread, which is like being stabbed with tiny little pins.

The last time I posted on this forum was last Nov 2008. My son is now 14 months old and hasn’t been wearing any of Carter’s clothing since his incident and his back had eventually healed and thankfully did not leave any scars behind. His wardrobe was all Carter’s, which I mailed every single one and got a full retail price reimbursement. Since this incident, I changed my son’s whole wardrobe to Old Navy. I’ve noticed that Old Navy has both tagless, but also old fashioned tags when I order his clothes online. My son wears both tags and tagless, but has no reaction to the tagless clothing as he did with Carter’s.

As to other mother’s and father’s who posted on this forum in the past or present or any other parent(s) out there, “How are your little ones doing since this Carter’s tagless clothing incident?”

My son is also 14 months old now.  He does wear newer Carter’s clothing and other clothing with tagless tags, but I totally 100% avoid the older rectangle Carter’s tag.  As I went though my older son’s clothing (33 month) to pull out clothes for my younger son, almost all of my older son’s Carter’s clothing had the large rectangle tagless tag and they never bothered my old son when he wore them.  The clothes aren’t that old because the boys are only 18 months apart.  I did put a tagless Gerber onsie from my older son on my younger son last month and immediately there was the red raising of the skin.  I took it off and tossed it.  Current tagless clothing that doesn’t seem to bother my younger son includes Jumping Beans (from Kohl’s), Old Navy, Granimals (from Walmart) and the newest line from Carter’s.

More than a year ago my daughter had constant irritation on the back of her neck. Over time it was apparent she was scratching this spot so we would apply a bit of cortisone cream. It resolved after a long period of time. This is the first I have heard of the connection between tagless shirts, which she wore very freaquently. I cannot believe the tab may have been the cause all along! I will worn other parents who may never make the right connection for their babies while they are still babies.

i am a new mom of a six week old baby boy, and i was a fan of Carters clothing until i started noticing large rashes on the back of his neck. The first inrritation occured two days after we left the hospital after giving birth to him he wore Carters clothing home from the hospital, i at first could not pin point what was causing the rash till i narrowed down every thing i used on him on a daily basis, which brought me to realize the issue was Carters clothes!!! i did my research and stubbled apon all these people with the same issue. OMG i hope when i call Carters i dont have problems getting my money back.

I am having trouble locating the heavy blanket material in infants sleepers of 40-50 years ago
doing away with the need for a blanket
today the sleepers are very thin
pls tell me where they are sold

thank you