Bumbo Warning

First I have to start by saying how much I love the Bumbo seat! And Justin does too - I wish they had these when Brian and Sean were babies. It allows babies as young as three or four months to sit up. Justin loves to sit and be in the mix of things with his brother.

Okay, so there has been a recent "voluntary recall" of these seats. Babies have been injured when they are placed on a high surface and fall out. There is no safety strap - if the babies arch their backs and wiggle, they can escape from the Bumbo. There are comments on web pages everywhere about people going crazy and returning them to stores! If you contact the Bumbo Company, they will send you a warning sticker. Here is a report from the Consumer Product Safety Commission for more information.

I think a warning sticker is a good idea. But, use your common sense people. You never place a baby on a high surface in anything - especially if you are not holding onto the child at the same time! Things happen so quickly and it isn't worth the slim chance. One mom said she was feeding her child on the counter and she looked down to get some more food on the spoon - in that split second the baby got out of the Bumbo and fell to the floor. The baby fractured her skull and needed surgery to save her life.

Keep babies down on the floor! No baby products are supposed to be on elevated surfaces - not infant car seats or bouncy seats or booster feeding seats etc.! Even our pediatrician has a sign up telling patients not to put infant carriers on tables and counters.

I will continue to use my Bumbo in the proper way and think it is a wonderful product. Justin loves it and it gives me a few much needed minutes to do things like, I don't know - eat once in a while! If you remember I did use it in the tub (which the instructions say not to do) - but I never took my hand off of Justin!

Speaking of the tub - there are also people trying to get baby bath rings recalled because babies have drowned. Again - these are not designed to secure your child and no child should ever be left alone in the tub and you should never be more than an arms length away from them. I did a search for this because I was having a hard time trying to find a bath ring for Justin. Luckily, I found Brian and Sean's old one in the garage! A little soap and water and we are ready to go.

He is too big for a baby bath tub and not big enough to sit alone in the tub - and way to slippery to be held in the tub! A little tip - if you have a bath ring - put one of those bath sponges where the baby sits and they don't slide around as much!

Does anyone ever have to say - Do not put a car seat with a baby in it on the roof of the car? Do not place Bumbo on airport landing strips? Do not leave stroller in the middle of the street? Do not place baby in a shark tank? Do not use washing machine to clean a child or the dryer to dry or warm a child? Do not sanitize a baby in the dishwasher? Do not bring down a fever by placing a child in the freezer? Do not let baby play with rabid dogs? Do not place baby on elevated surfaces? Do not leave baby in tub alone? All no brainers to me!

I feel for the families who have had their child injured or killed in any way. In no way do I mean to make light of their situations. Nor do I disagree if you want to return the Bumbo for your own reasons. Just trying to say think about things before you do them - especially where babies and kids are involved. Don't take even the slimmest of chances.

Here is a good example - a 3rd grader wanted to walk home from school alone the other day. Her mom said yes because her younger siblings still wanted to play - the child's father was at home and their house was only a few blocks away. Then the mom thought better and said she had to go and ran after the child. Later that night we got an e-mail from the PTA about a strange man in a car talking to kids on their way home from school in a neighboring town. I bet that mom was so happy that she went with her gut instincts when she got that e-mail!