Recalls are Scary!

This evening I was scrolling through Facebook while my pictures uploaded from my phone and my heart leaped out of my chest as my eyes caught an article someone had posted to their wall.  I saw a picture of one of Carter's toys accompanied by the headline "No Recall of Soothe and Glow Seahorse Toddler Toy Despite Fire Safety Concerns".  I immediately clicked on the link, read the article, and watched the video.  Check out the article here.  Long story short the battery coil has been known to heat up and melt the plastic inside the battery pack.  The company has improved the toy so there are now only 2 batteries rather than 3.  I quickly jumped up and headed into Carter's room to check his toy.  His is one of the new ones that only takes 2 batteries, thankfully!  But man, it's scary to think the company knows the product was faulty and did not recall it.  Why put any baby in an unsafe situation?

Please keep me safe!

We had a similar experience earlier this month with Carter's car seat.  A family member very thoughtfully sent me an article, this time titled "3.7 Million Graco Car Seats Recalled Due to Buckle Issue".  No parent ever wants to see their child's car seat company included in such and article, check it out here.  All I saw were the words recall and Graco car seat before I panicked.  My eyes didn't even flit across the words buckle issue until I was half-way through the article.  It turned out Carter's car seat wasn't included in the recall, but we could still get a replacement buckle which we plan to do.  Ty called and they asked for serial numbers and all kinds of information, so he wasn't able to do it quite yet.  In the meantime I had him switch Carter's new big boy car seat into my car.  We definitely still need the replacement buckle for our next baby, but luckily we already had the replacement car seat on hand.

Both of these situations really rubbed me the wrong way.  It's scary that companies care more about making money than the lives of human beings.  And not just any human beings, but infants and toddlers!  Those infants and toddlers are someone's whole word.  Someone's reason for getting up in the morning, for pushing through a hard day, for enjoying all the changes life throws their way.  How can a precious child be considered a statistic, a number?  How can the lives of children be stacked up against profit margin?  How many children would have to die for the company to lose money? 

As much as I love friends and family keeping me informed of product recalls through facebook, it is very scary for me!  I'd rather not log on to find out about a problem with one of Carter's toys, so I decided it's time to get proactive.  I've used the website HealthyStuff.org in the past to make sure toxic chemicals weren't present in Carter's toys when we were stocking his nursery.  Tonight I searched on the app store and found "Recalls: Urban Apps" and "Recalls Plus" in hopes that I can stay up-to-date on recalls that way.  I'm not sure how good the apps will be, but we will see.  I am so thankful that neither of the recalls were on the exact item Carter had.  We have been lucky and I'm not leaving it to chance in the future!