Health Canada, the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (US CPSC) and Kolcraft Enterprises Inc. have jointly recalled certain Kolcraft Contours Options three- and four-wheeled strollers. A finger can get caught in the hinge mechanism used to adjust the handlebars, posing a risk of amputation or laceration.
The following models are affected:
Although there have been no incidents reported in Canada, Kolcraft has received five reports of injuries involving the hinge mechanism, including three reports of children whose fingertips were amputated and two adults whose fingers were either smashed or lacerated in the U.S.
Customers are advised to stop using the stroller and contact Kolcraft to receive a free repair kit at 1-800-453-7673, between 8AM and 6:45PM EST Monday through Thursday, and 8AM and 3:30 PM EST Friday, or by visiting the company's website.
From January 2006 to June 2012, approximately 274 units of the recalled strollers were sold at Toys R Us and other retailers in Canada, and approximately 36,000 in the United States.
According to Gregory Slayton, an American professor, businessman, philanthropist, former Ambassador and dad of four, fatherhood is in a state of crisis. Having been abandoned by his own father, whom he referred to as "the saddest man I have ever known," Slayton stresses in a new book, Be a Better Dad Today the critical role that fathers play in their children's lives.
This isn't your father's generation, says Slayton, who offers modern dads the tools needed for staying connected to their children despite hectic work schedules and 'special circumstances' like single dads, blended families, long-distance and deployed dads.
Enter the 13-nation team of psychologists currently working on the International Father Acceptance Rejection Project. Their point: to prove that a father's love and acceptance is equally, if not more, important to his child's long-term wellbeing. The theory goes that children and young adults pay more attention to the parent they perceive to have "higher interpersonal power or prestige."
Among Slayton's top 10 tools for becoming a better dad are family fun, a committed marriage, a never surrender attitude ("Winning dads never quit, and dads who quit never win") and resiliency in the face of what Slayton calls 'life's beanballs."
For Slayton, a former US Ambassador and venture capitalist, family is a lifelong investment, and what he dubs 'fatherhood failure' is costing America billions of dollars every year. To underscore his commitment, he is donating all royalties from book sales to a fatherhood charity.
A forthcoming study in Clinical Pediatrics has revealed that children living in urban centres are twice as likely to have peanut and shellfish allergies than those living in the sticks. It's the first study of its kind to hone in on geographical differences when it comes to allergy incidence.
"We have found for the first time that higher population density corresponds with a greater likelihood of food allergies in children," said lead author Dr. Ruchi Gupta, an assistant professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine and a physician at the Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago. "This shows that environment has an impact on developing food allergies. Similar trends have been seen for related conditions like asthma. The big question is—what in the environment is triggering them? A better understanding of environmental factors will help us with prevention efforts."
Of the almost 40,000 children under the age of 18 studied, 9.8 per cent of those living in urban centres had food allergies, compared to 6.2 percent in rural communities, though 40 per cent of the allergic children in either location had experienced severe, life-threatening reactions to food. The incidence was doubled for reactions to shellfish and peanuts.
Food allergy is a serious and growing health problem, both here and in the U.S. where an estimated 5.9 million children—or one out of every 13 children—now has some kind of life-threatening food allergy.
According to a recent study published in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, every three minutes someone is rushed to an emergency room due to a food reaction.
Children in urban centres have also been found to have a higher incidence of asthma, eczema, allergic rhinitis and conjunctivitis than those in rural ones. Researchers suspect that early exposure to certain bacteria in rural areas may actually protect against hereditary hypersensitivity to some allergens. Just as pollutants in urban areas may trigger allergies.
Would you ever consider becoming a country bumpkin to improve your health or your children's health?
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