Check Stored Baby Gear Against List of Recently Recalled Items

Many people save baby gear in self storage units, planning to reuse gear for an expected sibling or hoping to give the gear away to family members or friends. If you are storing baby gear, you may want to doublecheck to make sure that none of the gear has been recalled before allowing families to use it. Recalls of baby gear are common, but this has been a particularly bad year for stroller and double stroller recalls.

Thousands of Zooper strollers, a high-end double stroller sold at Babies-R-Us, were recalled today by their manufacturer, Lan Enterprises. The Zooper had a frame latch problem that caused the stroller to occasionally collapse without warning. Last January, Graco recalled several models of strollers and travel systems because the canopy hinges were lacerating, and sometimes amputating, children’s fingers. About 1.5 million Graco strollers were thought to pose a risk to children. Fortunately, baby gear that has been recalled can often be repaired with a free kit from the manufacturer.

The Zooper can be repaired with a kit that is available from Lan Enterprises at zooper.com. The recall applies only to models SL808B and SL808F that were sold during 2007 and 2008. Children riding in the collapsing strollers have so far not been badly hurt, but have been scraped and bruised.

The Graco strollers, including the Graco Passage, Alano, and Spree Strollers and travel systems, can be fixed with a free protective cover repair kit. They were sold at Babies-R-Us, Toys-R-Us, Kmart, Sears, Target, Walmart, and several other retail stores between October 2004 and December 2009.

Last fall, Maclaren recalled a million umbrella strollers that were lacerating, and in some cases amputating, children’s fingers. Children’s fingers tended to get stuck between the stroller’s side hinges as the stroller was being opened or closed. That recall affected the following models of stroller: Volo, Triumph, Quest Sport, Quest Mod, Techno XT, Techno XLR, Twin Triumph, Twin Techno, and Easy Traveler.

Sources used:

“3,700 Zooper strollers recalled for latch failure.” CNNMoney.com. Aug. 19, 2010.

Rooney, Ben. “Graco stroller recall: 1.5 million.” CNNMoney.com. Jan. 20, 2010.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Graco recalls strollers due to fingertip amputation and laceration hazards.” Jan. 20, 2010. 

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission. “Lan Enterprises recalls Zooper Tango double strollers due to collapse hazard.” Aug. 19, 2010.

Yousuf, Hibah. “Maclaren recalls 1 million strollers.” CNNMoney.com. Nov. 9, 2010.