Baby product retailer Dr. Brown recalled around 600,000 of its baby comfort products on Thursday after they were deemed choking hazards. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the Lovey pacifier and teether holders, which look like giraffes and zebras, each have a snap that “can detach from the pacifier’s ribbon, posing a choking hazard for young children.” The holders have been recalled in both the US and Canada.While no injuries have been reported, Dr. Brown’s says there have been 67 reported cases of the snap coming off in the US and two in Canada.
Now, even though the pacifiers attached to the ribbons haven’t been deemed dangerous, parents have been encouraged to return the entire product to Dr. Brown’s distributor Handi-Craft and get a replacement product or one of equal or lesser value. Manufactured in China, the Loveys are sold at Walmart and on Amazon for about $10 each. Over half a million of the products have been sold though not all are affected by the recall — just certain manufacturing lots. Parents looking to find out if their Dr. Brown product is still safe should check to see if their Lovey was part of one of the following lots: RICH0615, RICH0715, RICH0815, RICH1215, RICH0516, RICH0616, RICH0716; RICH1116, RICH1016, RICH0916, RICH1216, RICH0317, RICH0417, RICH0517, RICH0617, RICH0717, RICH0817, RICH0917. If so, they should probably send it back or, at minimum, modify it for safety’s sake.
The recall of products for children and babies is actually fairly common.Roughly 100 products meant for babies and small children are recalled every year. Unfortunately, the majority of the products targeted by those recalls remain in homes. Manufacturers usually only receive 10 to 30 percent of recalled products. This may be due to the predictable lack of public communication by companies around recalls and may have to do with parents simply being unaware of what specifics products are.
That being said, Dr. Brown’s has been unusually forthright and proactive. In an Instagram post about the recall, Dr. Brown assured parents that they are “committed to making this right.”
