Dear Baby
Bargains:

I wanted to let you know about
an inconspicuous choking hazard on an infant toy. As the mother of an
8-month-old who puts everything in his mouth, I am of course very careful to
make sure my son doesn’t have access to anything he can choke on. As it turns
out, the little legs sewn on to the Wiggles caterpillar (the one with the green
head – there are three different bugs) from The First Years, are just long
enough for an infant to nearly swallow them. But of course the legs are
attached, so they don’t go down the baby’s throat, they just hang there for the
child to aspirate on. My son was sucking on one of the feet on Sunday, April
3rd, when he sucked it into the back of his throat and could not dislodge it on
his own. I looked over just as he was gagging on it and he even threw up before
I could get to him and pull it back out of his mouth. The leg was quite lodged
in his throat and it was not about to come back out on its own. He, of course,
is too young to know to pull it back out. This is a much hidden danger, as one
wouldn?t consider any of the pieces of Wiggles as being a choking hazard
because they are all attached/sewn on. But I can guarantee you that had we not
been there to pull the leg of this toy out of the throat of my son, the outcome
would have been very different.

I have emailed the company to
let them know about this incident and also filed a report with the Consumer
Product Safety Commission. But since your book is read by many, many parents, I
wanted to try and make you aware of this as well.

Thank
you,

Joanna
S.
Kansas City,
MO