May
31
2013

RECALL: Harmony Juvenile Products V7 Convertible Deluxe Car

Structural Failure

RECALL: Harmony Juvenile Products V7 Convertible Deluxe Car

Harmony Juvenile Products and Transport Canada have recalled V7 Convertible Deluxe Car Seat (Model# 0302001TNC), as testing revealed the seats currently do not comply with The Motor Vehicle Restraint Systems and Booster Seats Safety Regulations. 

During crash testing, the bolts securing the base of the V7 Convertible Deluxe Car Seat to the backrest tore through. Any exposed sharp or protruding edges could pose a potential injury risk to a child.

The connectors on the V7 were also too wide to fit the designated checking device, leading to possible difficulty securing the lower connector system. Both registered and non-registered customers are advised to request new, compliant lower connector systems.

Customers with registered seats will receive the required parts and installation instructions to modify their car seats.  Non-registered users should contact Harmony Juvenile Products’ customer service department (1-877-306-1001) to receive the instruction pack.

Transport Canada and Harmony Juvenile Products have stressed that safety is compromised without the structural modification.

From December 7, 2011 to November 2, 2012, approximately 9,300 of the affected seats were sold in Canada.

May
31
2013

Six-Year-Old With Toy Gun Threatened With Suspension

Kid's Packin'

Six-Year-Old With Toy Gun Threatened With Suspension

Is that a teeny toy gun in your pocket or are you just pissed off to see me? That's what a Massachusetts school might have been asking after it threatened to suspend a six-year-old student from toting a LEGO-sized weapon with him on the bus ride to school. 

According to an article in the Huffington Post, a classmate told the bus driver, who in turn threatened the child with "a detention, a bus ticket and a potential bus suspension."

Even though the gun in question wasn't much bigger than a quarter, and the detention never followed through, the impact of the incident was huge. The student wrote a letter of apology to both the driver and Old Mill Pond Elementary School. 

This kind of zero-tolerance policy has led to other incidents recently, following the Newtown school shooting, including a five-year-old girl who was suspended over a 'Hello Kitty' bubble gun and seven-year-old Josh Welch who was famously suspended for "biting a Pop-Tart into the shape of a gun." (Then the NRA went and applauded his actions.)
 

Perhaps if the U.S. instituted a zero-tolerance policy for real guns, then it would do away with toy gun paranoia.

Thoughts?
May
30
2013

Craigslist Ad To Cure Picky Eater

Dinner Table Despair

Craigslist Ad To Cure Picky Eater

We've all been there: driven to the brink of dinner table despair at the hands of a 'picky eater.' Some of us get downright cloak and dagger when it comes to getting our kids to eat—hiding all manner of greens in cakes and muffins. But it could be so much worse.

Though fussy eating is one of the most predictable stages of parenting, not all parents take it in their stride. Like the anon parent who posted an appeal on Craigslist, seeking a "really really skinny person" to drive the message home to their neophobic kid (a fussy foodie's fancy scientific name) that starving isn't the way to go.

As a child, you may have been told by a well-meaning relative to consider the starving children in Africa (like I was). But the thinking today has changed with the times; with the extent of disordered eating and globesity, nutritionists and parenting experts stress the goal shouldn't be for kids to clean their plates but to eat healthy, balanced meals. 

As the article in the Huffington Post suggests, we can only hope this Craigslist ad is simply a "not-very-funny joke." As evidenced by one of my in-laws, who as a child subsisted on only fries and white bread, parents would do well to remember: this too will pass.  

Have a fussy eater? See our resident nutritionist's top tips to get their forks in action.