Today I got countless e-mails, phone calls, and Facebook messages from good willed friends and family informing me of the recent recall of the ever popular baby seat The Bumbo. When I first saw the word recall I was thinking what could possibly be the reason for a recall with this seat made entirely out of foam. Then I read the article. Back in 2007 they recalled about 1 million of these seats to add warning labels stating that it is not to be put on elevated surfaces. The first line of the article on USA today was this "that majority of the new incidents were dealing with children being left unattended on raised surfaces." No Kidding!!!! Why would you leave your child unattended on a counter, table, couch etc in or out of any child care product???
I remember the first time I saw the Bumbo. I was looking though a friend's Facebook pictures for their daughter's first birthday. She was sitting in a lilac version of the bumbo and I thought what a nifty little seat. A few years later the little boy I watched in Mississippi had a bumbo and a couple years after that we bought one for our Gracie. When I first used the bumbo is Mississippi I remember thinking umm...it wouldn't be all that hard for a baby to get out of this. I thought it was an oblivious observation, but according to the incident reports apparently not. There is nothing keeping your child in the seat other then a thicker piece of plastic between their legs. So why anyone would believe that it would be safe to walk away from their child in it is beyond me. One comment I read today stated that a women did not buy a bumbo because it did not have belt. She said that if it had restraint belt she was sure the accidents would less frequent. I highly doubt that. High chairs have restraint belts, so do baby swings, some jumperoos have belts as well. Would you leave your child on the kitchen table in their high chair?? Yea, I didn't think so. Not to mention that a belt would not prevent the child from tipping the seat over, but rather just cause the child to take the seat with them as they fell over.
When I commented on the local news channels Facebook post about this issue today I said that to me this recall makes about as much sense as recalling a car seat because a group of parents did not strap it into the car. A woman wrote to me saying that she didn't agree with me at all. That just yesterday her 6 month old son had "wiggled" out of his bumbo on the floor in the living room and I quote "....his leg had gotten stuck and I found him with his head on the floor. By the grace of God he was uninjured." My response was simple. "First, if you read the manual it states that once your child is able to sit up on their own the play tray should always be used while in the seat. I will admit it is unreasonable of the company to recommend a safety measure that is sold separately from the seat but at least they inform of you this in the manual. Secondly you said you "found him with his head on the floor". It also states in the manual that the seat 'should always be used under adult supervision'. It is not made to be a babysitter." Why this woman would argue that her son was almost injured because he was able to wiggle his way out of the seat and on to the floor was the companies fault is crazy to me. Had she been in the room with him she would have been able to either A. Keep him from falling out or B. Help him out of the seat!
This whole recall is ludicrous to me. If I use a product IMPROPERLY I would NOT expect the company to be responsible for any injury that incurred. Back to my car seat example, if I did not latch Grace's car seat into the car and she was injured in someway I am sure any judge would tell me that I was entitled to NOTHING. Why, because it is clearly stated in the manual that the seat must be latched into the car properly in order to work. I see this as being the same, and yes I dug though my garage today to find the bumbo box and manual to read it which is why I know what it says. I am sure that 90% of parents did exactly what we did when we got the seat. Pull it out of the box and that was it. Which is why the words "WARNING: Not to be used on elevated surfaces." were added to the Bumbo seat itself in 2007, but to me that is just COMMON SENSE. I think it is sad that we can get away with blaming a company for our own ignorance in today's world. What's next blaming hot coffee for burns?? Oh Wait.....
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