A little over a month ago I was with a friend in a local store looking for a baby gift. We saw the bumbo seat and my friend thought that would be a neat gift, but working in a law office I have become leery about products. I expressed my concerns to her that in recent days we might hear of a defect with the seat......
"The reports of serious head injuries prompted the CPSC to announce a nationwide warning to consumers that have these — not to put these on elevated surfaces and be aware that children can climb out of them or they can tip over in these chairs," said CPSC Senior spokesperson Julie Vallese.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission knows of at least 28 incidents of babies falling out of Bumbo Seats. Three of those cases resulted in skull fractures.
The Lamm family has filed a lawsuit against the Bumbo company and Target stores, where a friend bought their chair as a gift.
The Lamm Story (taken from ABC news):
"If it had been three minutes later he wouldn't have made it," said Mary Catherine Doherty, Dylan's mother, Santa Rosa .
"He arched his back and the Bumbo tilted and the back folded and he toppled over backwards. When I picked him up, I could feel his head and I could tell it wasn't good," said Kevin Lamm of Santa Rosa Dylan landed head first on the hard kitchen floor. He was rushed to the hospital with a cracked skull and it was filling with blood.
"By the time we got there, there was no pulse — three minutes more and he would have been dead. I dont' know what I'd do if I lost him. He means everything to us," says Kevin Lamm.
Emergency surgery saved his life.
Now the Lamms want to warn everybody about this chair.
Bumbo told ABC News they do not encourage parents to use the seats on raised surfaces and that they have been cooperating with the CPSC, but until recently the Bumbo web site and Bumbo's displaying package contradicted this by declaring the seat safe for use on "any level surface," and had photos of babies sitting in the seat all in a row on top of a picnic table during a birthday party posted on the company's web site as well as displayed on its packaging. The Bumbo Company told ABC's San Francisco Local Channel 7 On Your Side investigation team that its seat is safe with "suitable supervision," and that the term safe on any "level" surface means "ground level."
Many photos as well as the statement "safe on any level surface" have since been removed from the website due to inquires and the Lamm law suite. Bumbo says it wants to avoid "contradictory" messages. The company based out of South Africa said they are making new warning labels and instructions and taking the seats off shelves until the warnings can be added.
Videos posted on YouTube show other babies escaping from their Bumbos, from wriggling their way out to taking tumbles from countertops
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