The other day my wife informed me that Son #2 (currently seven years old) had run a Google images search for ‘butts’ on her MacBook when he was supposedly searching for information on reptiles. And yes, he was sitting right out in the middle of the dining room in plain view when he did it, though we didn’t see it happen.

When I asked him about it, he was very forthright. Yes, he had searched for butts. But according to him, he actually had been searching for pictures of alligators, and then got the bright idea of trying to figure out where an alligator’s butt is located — he has a suspicion that it’s right up there under the base of the tail, but he wanted to be sure.

He went on to say that he forgot that he was doing a “picture search,” and accidentally wound up with a bunch of pictures of butts (thankfully he didn’t do a web search, as the results are actually worse).

He went on to say:

“But they all had clothes on. Well, except one, but that was an ancient Egyptian. And there was also a lady wearing a bookini.”

(And yes, he actually used the term “bookini.”)

When I did the fatherly thing and asked him if he had any questions or wanted to talk about anything, he got a disgusted look on his face and said:

“No. I’ve seen enough.”

And that, dear friends, is our first lesson in keeping an even tighter leash on the kids when it comes to internet access.

Are you worried about the recent toy recalls? Having trouble keeping up with what’s safe and what’s made of lead? Then look no further than the US Consumer Product Safety Commission’s master list of toy recalls, which can be accessed here. The list is arranged chronologically, with the most recent recalls at the top.

And yes, I know what you’re thinking…

If only they offered an RSS feed.

Well… They don’t, but we do!

Simply add the following url to your favorite feedreader and you’re good to go:

Toy Recall RSS Feed: http://www.raising4boys.com/toyrecalls/

Alternatively, you can sign up to receive recall updates via e-mail.

Note that this feed only gives you the titles of the recalls, but the titles are pretty descriptive, so that should be more than enough to decide if you want to click through for more information.

Also note that, while the above url redirects to a FeedBurner feed that I’ve created, you should subscribe via the link listed above in case I have to make any changes to keep this feed alive in the future.

Finally, I thought I’d take this opportunity to plug our regular RSS feed, which provides you with the full text of everything we write. We also offer an e-mail version.

(Special thanks to The Consumerist for pointing out the CPSC list.)

First lead-laced toys and bibs, and now this…

Over the weekend, my wife and I were lamenting that we haven’t been able to find our preferred bread - Earthgrains Honey Wheat Berry - anywhere in town. We’ve checked Kroger, Publix, Sam’s Club, and Super Wal-Mart and have come up empty. We can find generic versions, but they’re just not the same.

Well, tonight I decided to investigate, and guess what? Sara Lee has issued a “precautionary recall” (pdf) of 27 types of wheat bread. [more]

In case you haven’t heard, Mattel has recalled 19 million toys made in China. At the heart of the recall are two main problems: lead paint and magnets. The lead paint problems affect multiple Fisher-Price products as well as a couple of die-cast cars based on the “Sarge” character from the movie cars. In the case of the magnets, recalled toys include a variety of Polly Pocket, Batman, Barbie, Doggie Daycare, and Shonen Jump toys (see here and here). The recalled toys were sold nationwide between May and August of this year.

The risks associated with coating children’s toys with lead paint are self-evident. As for the magnets, they can come loose. Thus, they pose the same risks as the defective Magnetix building kits that were the focus of a recall awhile back — namely, potential intestinal perforation or blockage following ingestion.

An interesting sidebar to all of this relates to the challenges associated with disposing of millions lead-tainted toys. Mass dumping of these toys into landfills could pose an environmental hazard. Lovely. Mattel managed to sell a bunch of toys that aren’t even fit for disposal because they’re so toxic.

As if these toy recalls weren’t enough, the Center for Environmental Health is reporting that certain vinyl baby bibs that were manufactured in China and are currently for sale at Toys’R'Us contain lead at 3-4 times the level that the EPA allows in paint. No word on a recall yet.

Related Resources:
Mattel’s Recall Information
The CPSC Toy Recall Page

The good folks over at ParentWonder just dropped us a line about a list of 101 child-proofing tips that they’ve put together. I just skimmed through the list, and there are a lot of good suggestions, especially for new(er) parents. Check it out if you have young’uns of your own and want to keep them safe.

We stopped at Cracker Barrel for lunch on our way home from vacation a few weeks ago, and something interesting happened. Those of you familiar with “The Barrel” (as we refer to it) know that it has a wonderful assortment of candy. We usually let the boys pick out something for the road — Swedish fish for them, Atomic Fire Balls for us. Yum! [more]

This doesn’t affect us, but it sounds like there’s a potential for serious injury, so I thought I’d post it here…

Hasbro has issued a second recall of Easy-Bake Ovens sold since May 2006. Hasbro actually issued an initial recall back in February due to 29 reports of kids getting their fingers caught in the oven’s opening, resulting in five reported cases of burns. At the time, they offered free reato-fit kits to eliminate the danger. Unfortunately, it seems like the danger still exists, as they have received and additional 249 reports of kids getting their fingers caught, including 77 reports of burns, 16 of which were second or third degree, and one of which required a partial finger amputation in a five year old girl. This recall includes units with the retro-fit kit, so if you have one and responded to the initial recall, you still need to deal with this one.

For more information and to download the recall form, visit the Easy-Bake recall site. Alternatively, you can call (800) 601-8418 for details.

In case you haven’t heard, the CDC has linked a salmonella outbreak to Peter Pan peanut butter as well as Wal-Mart’s Great Value peanut butter — both of which are produced by ConAgra Foods, Inc. Thus far, nearly 300 people nationwide. While ConAgra claims innocence, and states that all of their tests have been negative, they’ve issued a recall of the potentially tainted peanut butter and have started offering refunds.

Fortunately, we don’t have any of this stuff around the house, but… If you do, you need to check the product code on the lid. If it starts with 2111, then you should throw it out.

In order to get a refund, send the lid along with your name and address to:

ConAgra Foods
P.O. Box 57078
Irvine, CA 92619-7078

Correction… ConAgra has changed the address from the one originally reported by the AP:

ConAgra Foods
P.O. Box 3768
Omaha, NE 68103

For more information, call 866-344-6970.

[Source: Boston Globe]

Talk about having egg on your face… After making a huge splash with their study on infant safety seats, Consumer Reports has just withdrawn their report. According to Consumer Reports:

We withdrew the report immediately upon discovering a substantive issue that may have affected the original test results. The issue came to light based on new information received Tuesday night and Wednesday morning from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) concerning the speed at which our side-impact tests were conducted.

For their part, the NHTSA is “fairly certain that the crash speed [at which] Consumer Reports conducted the tests was really closer to 70 to 80-miles per hour.” If this is true, it means that the side-impact tests were carried out at roughly twice the intended speed.

Interestingly, Consumer Reports is still standing by its front-impact results, which it insists were performed at the intended speed. Given this, it seems that there are still some pretty severe problems with infant safety seats in this country, although they may not be as bad as originally believed. Consumer Reports intends to repeat the tests re-issue their report as soon as possible.

[Source: ABC News]

Over the years, I’ve had a lot of experience putting child safety seats of one kind or another into our cars. Remember, if you can move the seat more than an inch side to side or toward the front of the car, it’s not tight enough. After struggling to get our seats secured countless times, I stumbled onto a simple trick that lets you get your car seat buckled in tight. Every time. And with minimal effort. Here’s how you do it… [more]