The Great Bumbo Baby Seat Recall of 2007: Another Blow to Common Sense?

No doubt you've heard of the recent recall of the Bumbo baby seats by now. The seat is a squat little foam thing with two slots in the front that allow for a baby's legs to stick through. The contraption props up baby who can then sit up, more or less.  Here's a video of one in action courtesy of YouTube and the website bumbosafety.com, which was presumably set up in response to the recent unpleasantness.



News stories about the recall discuss the risk of skull fracture and other ghastly injuries. So what is it about the Bumbo seat that's inherently dangerous? Nothing, apparently, other than the fact that parents are putting them on things like tables, chairs, and who knows what else, and then the babies are doing what babies do, squirming and fidgeting and arching their backs which causes them to flip out of the seat onto the ground. Isn't this just common sense? I don't know about your babies, but mine were absolute squirm monsters, and putting them in anything with any kind of restraint short of a five-point harness involved them squirming and shimmying out. The Bumbo seat is obviously made to sit on the floor. I feel awful for anyone whose child was injured as a result of this situation, but is a warning label (which will be affixed when you send the seat back) really going to solve the issue?

My wife and I always chuckled at the warning labels on baby stuff that always seemed so outrageous, but I guess they're there for a reason...