Fisher Price Recall Toys Worldwide

I just heard on the radio that toy giant Fisher Price have issued a worldwide recall for more than 10 million of their products due to manufacturing flaws which have resulted to injury in at least 7 children.

This is very scary. As parents we spend most of our time 'keeping an eye' on our children whilst they are playing. Playtime should be fun but quite frankly it's anything but fun for anyone other than the child.

If your child is playing outside possible hazards range from falling, tripping, banging heads, being knocked over, being sunburnt, catching cold, being bitten by an insect ... and so on. I used to work in TV where we were never allowed to do anything without a risk assessment. If as parents we had to do a risk assessment for our local parks or even going to the supermarket we would never allow our children to leave the house.
Inside play is not much safer. Inside hazards include falling over, falling down stairs, falling up stairs, falling into stairs, kitchen hazards ( too many to list! ) table corners, doors and windows, slippery floors and finally toys.

Now toys should be safe. We spend a lot of money on toys and as part of the deal we expect that our toys have undergone the safety standards expected. We also expect that the age specified on the box is correct. Sadly this is not the case. Whilst most toy manufacturers do a great job in insuring their toys are as safe as can be, they ( and we ) cannot discount the genius of children and their desire to explore. And so toys go in mouths, in ears and in eyes. They are pulled apart, dissected and tasted. As a parent you have to keep a constant eye on your child when they are playing with their toys and you have to accept that however safe a toy may appear, in your childs hands you just cannot take any chances. We do however have to put a level of trust in the manufactures that assumes that basic accidents should not happen.

According to recent news articles, the Fisher Price products recalled 'span furniture to infant and children’s toys and hazards include choking and scarily, “genital bleeding.” A list of recalled items includes:
About 7 million Fisher Price Trikes and Tough Trikes toddler tricycles
About 950,000 Healthy Care, Easy Clean and Close to Me High Chairs
About 100,000 Fisher-Price Little People Wheelies Stand ‘n Play Rampway
About 2.8 million Baby Playzone Crawl & Cruise Playground, Baby Playzone Crawl & Slide Arcade, Baby Gymnastics Play Wall, Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquarium (C3068 and H8094), 1-2-3 Tetherball, Bat & Score Goal.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission was aware of 46 incidents where pieces of some of the recalled toys came loose, and in three of those incidents, a child had started to choke on the toy’s parts.'

The recall began earlier this week in the US and Canada, but according to the radio report today has now spread to Europe and Spain.