There has been a nationwide recall of approximately 200,000 units of the Simplicity Rainforest portable play yards due to a danger of the rails on the side of the play yard or elsewhere collapsing. This poses a serious danger as babies can be badly hurt if the pieces of the play yard fall on top of them. In fact, the CPSC has received over 1350 reports of the rails collapsing, resulting in injuries like bumps, bruises and more serious injuries in a few cases including a broken nose, broken wrist, a mild concussion, a cut to the hand which needed stitches and a chipped tooth.

What's worse is that the manufacturer in question, Simplicity Inc. and SFCA Inc., of Reading, Pa has not responded to CPSC’s request to recall these products. The CPSC's website says that they have not been responsive to consumer complaints recently received either. Fisher-Price has decided to step in and assist the consumers who have purchased the products.

What to look for: If you have a Simplicity portable play yard with a bassinet, changing table and a mobile, and the fabric is of a "Rainforest" pattern with a Fisher-Price logo, look underneath the play yard in order to locate the model number. It should be on one of the legs of the play yard. If the model number is 5310 RNF, 5310RNFC or 5310RNFW, you have the affected product. You should stop using the play yard at once and contact Fisher-Price for further assistance.

If you or anyone you know owns the Lion and Lamb Grabby rattles made by Infantino, please take them away from babies and children immediately. These ring-like rattles are of two types, shaped like a lion and a lamb. Look for the Infantino logo on the front right foot of the animal. If your rattle doesn't have a tail and the product code is 0108 and 0508, it's probably not affected by the recall. You can look for the product code behind the ear of the animal.

A little piece on the affected rattles, which forms the tail of the animals, can detach, posing a choking hazard. The recall has been issued after Infantino received 10 reports of the tail detaching. Fortunately, no injuries were reported.

These rattles were sold at various stores like Wal-Mart and Babies "R" Us from May 2007 through September 2008. If you have one of these rattles, you can contact Infantino for a replacement product of equal value. The toll free contact number is (888) 808-3111 between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m. PT Monday through Friday, or you can visit Infantino's website.

In the light of the toy recalls we've been seeing of late, the CPSC has provided a list of all recalled toys since 1975. On this page, the toy recalls are listed in order of most recent first. This makes it easier to search for a recalled toy or to browse through the list of recalled toys. When you click on each recall, it takes you to a page explaining the recall in detail, complete with an image of the recalled toy. Check it out at CPSC.gov.

Toy Giant Toys R Us made an announcement that it would hand out 15% discount coupons in exchange for KB Toys gift cards, which are now worthless. KB Toys had earlier said that it would no longer honor gift cards after filing for bankruptcy late last year. This went into effect on January 1st, 2009 in most states and on January 12th, 2009 in the remaining few states. This applies to gift cards bought at a KB Toys store. Customers can exchange their KB Toys gift cards for a 15% discount coupon which can be used towards the purchase of a single toy item at a Toys R Us store. The Toys R Us offer is valid until the end of January 2009.

Customers who purchased a KB Toys gift card online at KBToys.com can still fill out an online form on the KB Toys website to claim an electronic gift certificate which can be redeemed towards a toy purchase on the KB Toys website.

In essence, this a pretty good business tactic by Toys R Us. Toys R Us jumped on the opportunity to make some extra sales and at the same time, is providing some relief to KB Toys gift card holders who didn't realize what they were in for when they purchased/received their gift cards.