What Can You Do? Take action!
The Who, What, Where, When, and How of SFTS
What: Safe from the Start
Why: Recalled products are products that have been proven to be dangerous or malfunctioned or failed often causing injuries or killing a child. According to the U.S Consumer Product Safety Commission, an estimated 77,300 children under the age of 5 were rushed to U.S. hospital emergency rooms in 2009 for injuries associated with children’s products and 88 children were killed by unsafe nursery products.
Who: Talk to anyone who has or is expecting children, caregivers, healthcare professionals and organizations that work with families. It is especially important to reach expecting parents since often they are buying and receiving the most products for their infants and children.
When: Mention recalled products as often as you can. Parents and caregivers are continually buying new products, or receiving hand me down products for their children. Products are also continually being recalled. A constant reminder will encourage and remind parents to keep up with which products are unsafe. Encourage parents to register their children’s product as this is the only way a manufacturer will contact them in the event of a recall.
How: Making this information available provides an invaluable service to parents and caregivers helping them to create a safe environment for children and prevent needless injuries and accidents.
Order a copy of our new Safe from the Start DVD, a 6-minute video for parent, patient and provider education. The video describes the problem of unsafe children’s products and Three Steps to Safety to check for recalls and other safety hazards.
Learn more about KID’s workshop, Don’t Learn about Recalls from your Baby, an interactive presentation on tools and resources to help caregivers identify and remove unsafe children’s products from childcare settings. The presentation includes an informative lecture, an educational video, and hands-on demonstration of how to check for recalled children’s products. This workshop can be tailored for varied audiences including pediatricians, childcare providers, healthcare providers, grandparents or parents.
Register your new children’s products as this is the only way a manufacturer will contact you in the event of a recall. Download a handy brochure (pdf) on product registration and access a list (pdf) of websites where consumers can register products online.
Report unsafe products and incidents to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC).
Inventory your childcare facility or home for unsafe products using our Product Safety Checklist.
Download KID’s Safe Sleep Tips, a handy flyer on how to create safe sleeping environments and a list of the latest sleep environment recalls. Now available in Polish.
Sign up for KID’s monthly email alert with top consumer news, a list of recent children’s product recalls and the Recall Digest, a monthly compendium of children’s product recalls made for display in childcare facilities, thrift stores, pediatric offices and other places families visit.
Access other KID materials from our publications page.
Follow KID on Facebook and Twitter to receive safety alerts and then suggest the page to friends. Read KID’s blog for up-to-the-minute information on developments in children’s product safety oversight and other news.
Support KID’s vital safety work. Your contributions will enable KID to sustain this program and increase outreach to educate consumers on children’s product safety and recalls.