The Bumbo Baby Seat has been the baby accessory to ‘have’ for the last couple of years.
Parents have been buying up the moulded seat all over on the good word that it is perfect for babies who are not yet sitting.
SanFrancisco news station ‘7 on Your side’ has investigated some frightening incidents where babies fell out of Bumbo chairs. The report triggered a lot of response. Several parents from around the country wrote in saying their kids suddenly tumbled out of a Bumbo seat too. Lots of other parents wrote to say injuries are really the parents’ fault. And now because of our reports a worldwide child safety organization is calling for action, and the government is using our reports to advance its investigation.The Bumbo Baby Sitter is a new product from South Africa that gets huge raves but there are scary reports of kids tumbling out.
All of these babies are alright now, but the number of cases keeps growing.
7 On Your Side received nine more Bumbo accident reports in the past week; that’s triple the number of reports we obtained earlier from the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“Parents shouldn’t put up with it. You should expect that when you buy a product in this country in particular and you use it as directed or as marketed, your child is not going to get hurt,” said Alan Korn from Safe Kids Worldwide.
Alan Korn is public policy director of the non-profit consumer group Safe Kids Worldwide in Washington D.C. Because of our investigation, Safe Kids Worldwide is calling for greater scrutiny of the Bumbo chair after seeing our reports.
This, after seeing how babies can get out of the chair on their own. It has no straps and injury reports we’ve obtained show some babies were hurt even while seated on the floor.
However the biggest danger came when parents placed the Bumbo up high. Parents said they thought that was okay because Bumbo advertises the chair is safe on any level surface, and ideal for eye level feeding.
The biggest issue is that parents think that this chair is what the box says ‘a babysitter’and it’s not. It doesn’t have straps to hold the child in, it is a recreational item.
Actually, the chair was designed for kids with special needs, not normal kids. The deep scoop is to help develop lower back muscles and give kids with low muscle tone the chance to sit on their own.
A few years ago, some trendy shops picked it up and then it went like wildfire after that.
The directions CLEARLY state that the chair should not be used on raised or uneven surfaces. I guess some parents didn’t read that or they think that their child has super powers.
My question is: Should an item be recalled or investigated if the problem sits with it being used improperly?
