Product Recall: Little Tikes Recalls Children's Work Benches & Trucks

Little Tikes™ Recalls Children’s Toy Workshop Sets and Trucks Due to Choking Hazard
WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.
Name of Product: Little Tikes™ Workshops Sets and Trucks

Units: About 1.6 Million

Manufacturer: Little Tikes, of Hudson, Ohio

Hazard: The recalled workshop sets and trucks have oversized, plastic toy nails that can pose a choking hazard to young children.

Incidents/Injuries: The firm has received one report of an 11-month old boy from Goose Creek, S.C. who choked when the toy nail become forcefully lodged in his throat. The child was hospitalized and made a full recovery.

Description: The oversized, plastic toy nail is about 3 ¼ inches long by 1 ¼ inch in diameter and comes in red or blue colors. It has a large round head; about 1 ¼ inches below the head is a plastic ridge, slightly smaller than the nail head and about 1 inch in diameter. They were sold with a variety of Little Tikes Children’s products. The names, model numbers and UPC code of the products included in this recall are listed here: http://bit.ly/3pYez

Potty Training Tips!!

Potty Training is a really rough time. I'm not quite sure how many time people would give me advice or somehow "console" me by telling me that boys take longer to potty train than girls.

I was happy with the progress that we made on potty training. We started when our son was about 2 and a half. We bought him his own seat that goes on top of the toilet. Our bathroom was way too small to even entertain the thought of a little potty just for him. So we opted to lift him onto the seat every time he neede to go.

We then got him pull ups. We are lucky in that our son is extremely independent, so he enjoyed having something besides diapers that he could put on himself. Next, we introduced rewards every time he went potty. These were helpful, but didn't quite take him to the finish line, especially when it came to going #2. Eventually, we made sure that anytime he had an accident in his pullups, he had to change it himself. We also did this in the mornings. We saw this hint on a Today show segment about a woman who does a potty training boot camp! He really disliked doing this, but it was effective.

There were a few staples in the bathroom: Cheerios, books, and stickers. Fortunately, we had a really great book that combined two of my staples into one.

Zach's Potty: A Learning to Go Book

This was really helpful for us becauase our son really liked the stickers and the story related to what the stickers were for.

The other book that we had..er.. have in our bathroom is Potty Time with Elmo. Obviously great for any kid who likes Elmo - and what kid doesn't?

Potty Time with Elmo

Eventually, we started letting him watch the Elmo's Potty Time video. I guess we figured that he liked watching movies and we really wanted it to sink it that it was time for him to start going on the potty.
Elmo's Potty Time

We were pretty persistent and would put him on in the morning and then throughout the day. It's a lot of work and frustration; however, our son was potty trained (daytime only) by the time he was 3 and then potty trained overnight by 3 1/2 ish. He still has accidents every once in a while, but overall he does great.

Product Recall: Circo Booster Seats

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, in cooperation with the firm named below, today announced a voluntary recall of the following consumer product. Consumers should stop using recalled products immediately unless otherwise instructed.

Name of Product: Circo Booster Seats

Units: About 43,000

Importer: Target, of Minneapolis, Minn.

Hazard: The booster seat restraint buckle can open unexpectedly, allowing a child to fall from the chair and be injured.

Incidents/Injuries: Target has received eight reports of the booster seat buckles opening unexpectedly, including three reports of bruises.

Description: This recall involves Circo booster seats with manufacture date codes XJ0811, XJ0812, XJ0901, and XJ0902. The plastic booster seat is blue with green trim and has white straps. The manufacture date code is printed on the backside of the seat next to the consumer warning information. “Circo” can be found on a label located in the front of the seat.

Sold exclusively at: Target stores nationwide from December 2008 through June 2009 for about $13.

Manufactured in: China

Remedy: Consumers should immediately stop using the booster seat and return the item to the nearest Target store to receive a full refund.

Consumer Contact: For additional information, contact Target at (800) 440-0680 between 7 a.m. and 6 p.m. CT Monday through Friday, or visit the firm’s Web site at www.target.com

Product Review: Playtex Ventaire ADVANCED Crystal Clear BPA Free Wide Bottles

I started using Playtex Ventaire bottles 4 years ago and really liked them - and so they were the only bottles that we ever bought. While I was pregnant with my latest and greatest - the whole plastic bottle scare started happening. I looked at ALL the bottles I had and cringed because I didn't want to buy a bunch of expensive BPA Free bottles and I really liked Ventaire. Thankfully, when we went to start buying our newbie some baby stuff - we saw that Ventaire had a line of BPA Free bottles. Hooray!

Playtex Ventaire ADVANCED Crystal Clear BPA Free Wide Bottles 9 oz - 3 Pack


I'm not sure what the "Advanced" means (how advanced can a bottle be, right?) but we did really like these. The only issue that we ever had with this is when we boiled the vents - they seemed to temporarily get a bit smaller and then I had a leaky bottle. This was a HUGE problem for me as I had breastmilk in the bottle. *sigh* lesson learned - I hand washed all the bottles from there on out.

And I didn't replace my entire bottle collection with BPA free. I did use my old bottles - I just handwashed those as well. I still recommend those to anyone looking for a good set of bottles.

Playtex VentAire Advanced Standard Gift Set

Comment on what bottles YOU or your baby loves!