The last thing that you expect when you put your young child into a clip-on chair is that your child could suffer an injury. But that’s what can happen to children using some phil&ted’s “metoo” infant and toddler chairs that attach to a tabletop.
In fact, CPSC knows of numerous incidents involving some of the metoo chairs and has determined that serious, disfiguring injuries could occur as a result of the product’s hazard.
Here are the chairs, which you should stop using:
And here’s what CPSC staff says happens with the specific chairs that we are warning about:
The clamps can detach from a variety of different table surfaces. Also, the chairs can detach when children move around or use their feet to push against other objects.
When the chairs shown above detach completely from the table, the child can fall and get hurt. The chair can also detach partially, with one of the clamps sliding off the table. The child could grab the bar that runs across the chair. As the chair falls, the child’s fingers can get caught between the clamp and the bar and be severely pinched, cut, crushed or amputated.
Watch this video for a demonstration.
(Read the transcript, or watch in Windows Media format.)
In addition to the risk of permanent disfiguring injury with this product, the instructions and marketing information with this product are conflicting and confusing. This adds to the risk of injury to your child.
The clip-on chairs affected by this warning do not have black plastic spacers between the table clamps and the front horizontal metal bar. If you own one of these chairs, stop using it immediately.
The company has refused to agree to a national recall of their hazardous products that is acceptable to CPSC. The company has offered a repair kit consisting of rubber boots to place on the upper clamp grips of the chairs. Consumers should be aware that CPSC has not approved a repair kit for this product, despite the firm’s prior statement that it was conducting a recall “in cooperation with the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.”
Tens of thousands of the affected metoo chairs may have been sold since May 2006 for about $50 from Amazon.com, Buy Buy Baby, philandteds.com, Target, Toys R Us and online and independent children’s product specialty stores.
