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As a parent, your child’s safety is of utmost concern, and any product that you purchase for your child should be thoroughly researched and considered prior to use. The Bumbo Baby seat, as created by Bumbo International, has has left parents considering its use irrespective of any additional safety features. The most recent recall is described as “voluntary” by the Bumbo corporation, but when you consider the potential hazard for your child, such a recall should be anything but voluntary.

Bumbo seats were made for toddlers, and are to be placed on elevated surfaces to allow the child to sit and interact with a parent or adult while in the seat. Bumbo has stated that their most recent recall (which comes after the initial recall of 2007) is due to the potential for children to remove themselves from the seat and thus present a potential falling or tipping hazard as a result of the product and the infant’s own actions. This recall, installs a safety belt in the unit to keep the child in place; the previous recall, installed further safety stickers and warnings of the falling hazard.

This string of recalls, all tied to the same event, or string of events, should cause worry to parents still utilizing the Bumbo safety seat and whether the benefits of seat utilization outweigh the potential falling hazard these seats create. Even with increased warnings and hazard indication, 84 reports of falls occurred after the first recall, leaving room to consider whether this second recall will actually cause any marked reduction in the incidence of injury in children using this product.

Though as a parent, you should also use common sense and exercise caution any time you place your infant on an elevated surface. Some of the reported accidents were a result of a parent who wasn't paying attention, and while the recall should be a warning, parent's should not check their common sense at the door.

As a parent, if you continue to utilize the Bumbo product, please take advantage of the advertised recall on the Bumbo website:

[http://recall.bumbousa.com/]

And if your concerns about the Bumbo unit continue, please consider the inherit hazards of placing a child, either restrained or unrestrained, on an elevated surface. There is no recall for child injury.

About the Editors: The Shapiro, Lewis & Appleton personal injury law firm, whose attorneys work out of offices in Virginia (VA) and North Carolina (NC), edits the injury law blogs Virginia Beach Injuryboard, Norfolk Injuryboard, Eastern Shore Injuryboard as a pro bono service.

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