Kolcraft play yards recalled (update--more Thomas trains, too)

400,000+ Kolcraft play yards (playards? playyards?) recalled.

Update: More Thomas train parts recalled, too.

Bathroom ripped up with gaping hole in floor (an outhouse in the city!) + cat craziness  + late meeting last night + phone call from long-lost friend = no Q&A today.

Big charity project idea percolating, though.

Comments on any topics solicited.

Comments

[Shandra]

Can I just observe that I find the "China made" statements in that article disingenious - since the strap is presumably a design issue, it really doesn't matter where they were made.

Man, reno stress and kittens and late meetings! It's like a trifecta of busy! (but yay friends)

[Maura]

Also, it seems to me that for something like that to pose a suffocation risk, there would have to be a good bit of lack of parental supervision. Maybe it's just me....

[AK]

I agree with Shandra. I think it's irresponsible of the media to keep noting "Made in China", when the manufacturer isn't relevant to the recall/news story. Like the recalled cribs, which were a combination design flaw/home assembly mistake.

[dregina]

I'm really curious what you'd make of the New Yorker article on colic from a few weeks back. I read the whole thing wishing I was in a room with you and all your commenters reading along!

[Julieta]

I keep thinking the same thing when fear rips into my heart about the suffocation risks (parental supervision)! But then my anxiety-ridden mind also comes up with other scenarios like a daycare provider who puts the babies in a quiet room for naps, or an overnight visit to grandmas. I don't understand how someone doesn't check. At the higher ages they are, 10 months, 1 year, are they able to cry out? Poor things, I can't stand thinking about it. My DS is 15 months (thumbsucker from 2 days ago).

[Lisa]

PlayPEN. :) I like to imagine the marketing meeting when someone suggested "yard" because they are really not that big. Are they fooling anyone with "yard" rather than "pen"? Better than play "cage" I suppose.

PLEASE Note: I am not slamming anyone for using them - I used them myself but called it a playpen because play yard just felt silly. Just griping about the marketing department.

Agreed that a design flaw has nothing to do with country of manufacture. That's not very fair.

Topic: Would you rather your child be the youngest in a daycare/play group or the oldest? My son really enjoys (and benefits from) being around the older kids. They all just moved to the next class and now he's the oldest and I'm worried he won't be as able to talk with the younger classmates and also not as challenged to grow. (He's 2.5, the older kids were 3+, the new ones are around 2 but don't seem very verbal yet. 12 kids in the classroom ("Early Preschool" they call it).

[flea]

We call our Pack n Play the Porta-Prison, so.

My son (14 months) has just gone from being the oldest in his daycare class to being the youngest, when he moved to the toddler room. It's been a big transition, as he was not really walking when he moved. What's interesting to me though is the variability in skills I see in the kids in his toddler class (age range 15-22 months right now). The walking skills, verbal skills are all over the place, and not necessarily dependent on age.

Lisa, maybe your son will enjoy being the Big Boy in his class, and showing all the newbies around. If they're 2, my guess is some will turn out to be quite verbal and getting more so daily; perhaps after they settle in the talking will pick up. (My older child was a total chatterbox at 2 - there's got to be one of those in a class of 12!) In general, I am a fan of mixed ages, and I think it's healthy to have some time on both ends. And maybe you could schedule some weekend playdates with his 3 year old buddies?

[Kathy B.]

To address Lisa's topic:
"Would you rather your child be the youngest in a daycare/play group or the oldest? My son really enjoys (and benefits from) being around the older kids. They all just moved to the next class and now he's the oldest and I'm worried he won't be as able to talk with the younger classmates and also not as challenged to grow. (He's 2.5, the older kids were 3+, the new ones are around 2 but don't seem very verbal yet. 12 kids in the classroom ("Early Preschool" they call it)."

There are benefits both ways. The same benefits your son got from being younger will be passed on from him to the "little ones." He will learn also as he teaches the younger ones. Obviously, he will not think of himself as a teacher, but older children 'teaching' younger children has a benefit to the older child in reinforcing what he already knows and building self-confidence.

So, my opinion is that neither is preferable. Both are necessary for balance.

[Charisse]

Wow, Moxie, rough day! Hope the chaos is resolved quickly.

Great topic, Lisa! So far (up to 3 1/2), I have definitely preferred situations where Mouse is the youngest--she learns a ton and enjoys herself. When she's the oldest, she tends to be bored, and a bored Mouse is a miserable, cranky, and unable to sleep Mouse. I'm assuming it will be better as she gets older, but in the exact situation you talk about (bigger kids moved on to preschool last fall, she was the oldest in a classroom to 1 1/2 to 3 year olds) it was very hard for her. She really wanted lots of conversation, and the teachers were great about talking with her when they had time, but she just wasn't interested in the kids who couldn't keep up with her verbally. 2.x is a little young to really expect a kid to teach others IMO, and the range of ages was such that some of the stuff that would have been great for her would have been really inappropriate for the youngest kids in the room. We ended up "balancing" by getting a bunch of games and toys for home that were theoretically too old for her, and spending evenings and weekends overstimulating her brain on purpose. It definitely helped at least as far as her ability to get to sleep at night, and it got us through the last 6 months there (there wasn't a viable option as we couldn't afford a nanny longterm and her "real preschool" didn't have a spot yet). She perked back up as soon as she became the youngest in a mixed-age preschool group.

Now, with the 3-5 age range, I think being the oldest will have more benefits. The older 4s and 5s in the group are explicitly expected to help out the littlest, are paired with them on walks, etc. They're definitely old enough to understand that now, and Mouse talks excitedly about how she'll be a helper when she's bigger and I think that's going to be cool.

[Jllian]

My child is the oldest and I hate it, hate it, H-A-T-E it! He is 2 yrs 4 mos and is the oldest in a room starting with 18 mos. Supposably the next room, (most of whom he'd been with in the previous room and who are all people he mentions on a regular basis), begins strictly at age 2 1/2. Now, I'm sure for some children this placement wouldn't be a big deal at all. However, my child is quite verbal... or, should I say, WAS quite verbal. Major regressions happening, mimicking the children in his class who point and say something resembling a word but more of a sound. Also, my child is now crying for attn and he didn't do that before. I have to pretend I don't understand him to get him to "use his words." Sorry if I sound too hard-nosed here; I know some may think that my son is just at the age where those regressions might normally happen anyway. However, his verbal behavior and listening is so different at home vs. daycare/preschool, especially after a weekend or even just one day at home. I asked the director about when he'll be moved up and was told he is next; however, that could be a few weeks or six months... arg. I am trying to arrange playdates over the weekend or having a friend and parent from the older class over for dinner etc. but schedules are really tough. It makes me want to stay home with him... and I really love my job. I know intellectually that this certainly isn't a reason to consider a life change of this magnitude, (this too shall pass so to speak), but it really makes me question...

[enu]

I don't understand how this comes down to parental supervision issue. Assuming you don't all co-sleep (maybe you do) Monitor your infants/children while they sleep all night long? You really can't stay awake all night watching them sleep to make sure they don't suffocate! Well, I suppose a two parent family could do that, but it seems extreme. And if you force yourself to wake up 1 or 2 or 10 times during the night to check on them, there's still amply time for them to suffocate between checks - it only takes minutes.

[Jean]

The night before C was put on meds for reflux, he started choking right before my eyes on his own spit/spit-up. Not a sound, and I was sitting 6" from him. Realizing that it could happen again in the night while I slept, even if I slept in his room, well not a lot of sleep that night. I can't even imagine the panic. We have a PNP with the changing station, which we used a handful of times. But when the kids were in the PNP, we took the changing part off. Afraid it would fall on someone's head. Maybe this one isn't detachable.

As to the age question, M was the youngest almost all the time I was working, but I stopped working when she was 18 months. Because of her birthday, she is one of the oldest in her PreK class, but they combine with the K class for one of their center times, so she still gets the benefits of being with older kids.

Academically, being with older kids really helped last year, as she was exposed to the more advanced work without any pressure. But there isn't a huge difference by PreK, so being the oldest isn't terrible.

[Juile]

Hm. Well A is almost 2, and he has one of those birthdays that gives us the option of starting him in K when he's 4-almost-5 or keeping him out and starting him when he's 5-almost-6. I'm leaning toward the latter mostly because of the following reasons: He has some mild physical and verbal delays....he gets PT to build his core strength/balance, and he gets speech to address that. However, his speech is now surpassing his peers, so that is no longer really a delay. Emotionally though, boys tend to be a bit behind the curve....and developmentally as well. Not ALL boys, but a lot of them. I teach elementary school and I could tell the difference between boys who started later and those who have started earlier. I also have many good K teacher friends who can tell horror stories about boys who were started earlier than they probably should have been, and it made for an awful introduction to formal schooling.

As for being the "oldest" or "youngest" in the class, I agree with the posters above, it's good for kids to have experiences on both ends. I love it when A plays with his older cousins because he learns SO MUCH from them. But it's also fun to watch him play with his younger cousin because he becomes so caring and nurturing and helping (as much as a 2 yr old can "help"). For formal schooling for my child....I'm going to probably opt for him to be older (and more mature) in a class rather than younger. But of course, at 2.....who really knows? I'll probably change my mind 100 times between now and then.

BTW, I could also tell immediately who had been socialized in preschool (or playgroups or gym class etc.) and who had not. I'm a big advocate for preschool/pre-K/PEP programs/Co-op preschools/formal playgroups to introduce kids to the concept of "school" without all the academic pressure. It really really helps. I'm not saying all kids should go to preschool, but some kind of consistent socialization, structured play/learning group really goes a long way when it's time to start kindergarten.

[Monica]

About the recalled Kolcraft play "yards" (chuckled at your post on that topic, Lisa):
We actually have one of those models being recalled (the Contours 3-in-1 design -- a gift from the MIL, to whom I dare not mention the recall, lest she die of "what-if" guilt), and there are warnings ALL over the assembly instructions AND the thing itself about "DON'T PUT A KID IN HERE WITH THE CHANGING TABLE/CRADLE STILL ATTACHED." So, yeah, suffocation by an errant strap is definitely a neglect issue.

Our Banana-girl is 5 months old now, and since we were using the play-whatever pretty much exclusively as a changing table, it's been sitting there acting as something of a storage bin since she reached the 15-pound weight limit-- at three months. We're still co-sleeping, but we finally broke down and bought a crib just this past week-- just to have it and start maybe, trying to, kind of get her into her own bed so I don't have to forever sleep like a contortionist. The Porta-Prison (thanks, flea -this is going to get regular use in my daily conversation, now) was taking up the prime real-estate in bedroomland, and hence was re-packed. Googling the resale value (I do this for most things, even if I don't try to unload it) led me to the recall pages, or I might never have known about it, other than reading about it here, of course. How totally serendipitous is the universe...?

On the daycare thing, I can't wrap my mind around leaving my baby in a room with other babies and only a handful of adults and then leaving and going further than 50 yards from said room. I know I "need" to get BG socialized, and I know she would thrive with all the peer interaction, but I cannot, CAN NOT get over my paranoid waking nightmares about a daycare worker slipping up and hurting BG in any way/shape/form.

So, I guess all that means is I'm not ready to take that step. She's been coming with me to work since about one week after birth, so we're not exactly holing up, either. Is there a deadline (realizing that there really isn't one that works for everybody) for talking myself out of those worries so I don't stunt her socially? (Julie-- any advice/observations here?)

Thanks all-- great topics, BTW.