Another batch of peanut butter is tainted with salmonella. It didn't hit the big news, because the manufacturer only supplied industrial sized cans to schools, nursing homes, and factories.

Including the Kellogg's factory.

And now the recall affects you.

• Austin® Quality Foods Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers, all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Mega Stuffed Cheese Crackers with Peanut Butter, all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods PB & J Cracker Sandwiches - all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Super Snack Pack Sandwich Crackers
• Austin® Quality Foods Chocolate Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter - all sizes
• Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers
• Austin® Quality Foods Reduced Fat Toasty Crackers with Peanut Butter
• Sandwich Crackers
• Austin® Quality Foods Cookie/Cracker Pack
• Austin® Quality Foods Variety Pack

• Keebler® Cheese & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes
• Keebler® Toast & PB'n J Flavored Sandwich Crackers - all sizes

• Keebler® Toast & Peanut Butter Sandwich Crackers - all sizes

• Famous Amos® Peanut Butter Cookies (2- and 3-ounce)

• Keebler® Soft Batch Homestyle Peanut Butter Cookies (2.5-ounce)

Hundreds of people have been sickended and 6 have died in 43 states - so throw out those crackers!

Photos from Amazon, which promises to ship those items as soon as they become available safely again.

Labels: In The News, Recalls

I like Carter's clothes. They generally last a long time, and I know by now that they run one size too big.

Unfortunately, the 2007 line has problems. 400 babies have gotten rashes from the clothing, and while there is no recall, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is issuing a warning.

As Christmas approaches, you might want to review the list of recalled toys. Yes, toys are still being recalled for lead content!

Labels: Recalls

Kroger has recalled ground beef sold between May 21 and June 8, 2008 because it has been linked to e. coli outbreaks in Ohio and Michigan.

I first heard about this and went to Kroger's website. It wasn't on the main page, company news, or press releases. Shame on them for that.

Return the meat for a refund, if you have some in your freezer. My Kroger has ground beef on sale this week for 99 cents a pound, and I put meatloaf on the menu... I'm going to have to rethink that!

Labels: Recalls

Do you have this?

Mommy's Bliss Nipple Cream
Throw it out. It's been recalled. Some of the ingredients cause respiratory distress, vomiting, and diarrhea in nurslings.

Just because something's natural doesn't mean it's always safe! Poison ivy and hemlock are all natural, too.

Babies, in particular, are more susceptible to adverse reactions. What works fine on your 5 year old cannot always be given to your 5 month old.

The ingredients of the nipple cream include evening primrose oil and calendula (marigold) which can be a very efficacious remedy for eczema, but should not be used during pregnancy or breastfeeding. It affects a woman's cycle. Evening primrose oil can cause diarrhea, occasionally.

Labels: health, In The News, Recalls

I thought The Jungle was fictionalized history.

Major beef recall - 143 million pounds. In Sounthern California, the Westland/Hallmark plant has been prodding sick and crippled animals with forklifts to make hamburger meat. Hamburger meat that was shipped to schools,uost of which has already met a lunch lady fate.

At least someone is actually taking notice of this one. "This begs the question: How much longer will we continue to test our luck with weak enforcement of federal food safety regulations?" - U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, chairman of the Chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry.

Labels: health, Recalls

China's pharmaceutical industry isn't exactly up to Western standards. The factory that makes a leukemia drug has been shut down after contaminated medicine paralyzed hundreds of people. Shanghai Hualian's cancer drug facility is closed (pending an investigation; however, the Chinese government owns the plant and is doing the "investigating" so don't hold your breath on a a fair and unbiased report.) The license has been revoked, and two officials detained (probably for execution, then China will sell their organs. Business as usual!) (Random Rambling: It is outrageous that our country is going to send over our world class athletes to compete at the Beijing Olympics. I've got an icon on my sidebar from Faithmouse, and she's offering it to anyone who wants to post it.)

This same company also is the only plant in the world that makes the RU486 abortion pill. Of course, that "medicine" is intended to kill. The drug is already dangerous enough:

From Lifesite news

Ultimately, Danco indicated that 840,000 women in the United States have had abortions with its dangerous drug...

Those fatal infections have led to six American women losing their lives following the use of the abortion drug. Also known as mifepristone or Mifeprex, the drug has killed thirteen women worldwide and injured thousands in the U.S. alone.

Here is Danco's letter to providers, warning that 8% of women have heavy bleeding lasting 30 days or more, and of other complicatons. The Population Council has given Danco the sole license to distribute RU486 in the United States. What's the Population Council? It's a pro-abortion NGO funded by the Rockefellers and the Ford Foundation.

The RU486 pill is still being manufactured, imported by Danco Laboratories, and sold to thousands of American women.

In a related story, the man who gave his girlfriend the RU486 drug, causing their unborn baby to die, didn't show up in court. He's charged with first degree murder. Why is it murder when he gives her the pill, but not if she took it herself? How could he murder someone who is not a person? Oh, that's right. It's a baby and a person if the mother wants it to be. Otherwise, it's just tissue.

(Random Rambling: It is outrageous that our country is going to send over our world class athletes to compete at the Beijing Olympics, bolstering their economy and winking at their human rights violations. Not only do they sell human body parts on the black market, obtained from prisoners who were executed without any sort of due process or fair trial, they kill babies in the street, force women to be sterilized, muzzle the media, and don't even allow their citizens to worship God freely. I've got an icon on my sidebar from Faithmouse, and she's offering it to anyone who wants to post it.)

Labels: China, health, Olympics, politics, Prolife, Rants and Raves, Recalls

Not even board games are safe!

Cranium's Cadoo game recalled for violation of the lead paint standard (do your kids put the dice in their mouths? Mine do. Even the ones old enough to know better.)

You can see a complete list of children's items recalled due to lead paint violations here.

My First Kenmore stove set is recalled, too. This is due to poor design. When the door is open, the whole thing can fall over on your child.


Visit last month's Not Made In China Linkymark carnival for more links and ideas for safe toys.


Mama Says:
You should probably stay way from the cheap metal jewelry entirely. For more information on why Chinese metal jewelry has so much lead, read this. Or this.

Labels: Mama Says, Recalls

Today is Works for Me Wednesdays, graciously hosted by Shannon at Rocks in My Dryer. It's another backwards edition -which means instead of bossing you around, I ask for help!

Here's my dilemma.

Since it came out that water bottles are leaching BPA, a chemical known to cause hormone disruption in humans, and the recall of polycarbonate and Nalgene water bottles (read about that here. And here.), I've been checking our plastics.

Most plastic items have a number inside a triangle on the bottom, which tells you what kind of plastic it is (and how to recycle it.) The consensus seems to be that numbers 2, 4, and 5 are safe for food use with humans.

Our plastic baby bottles are #7 - they've got to go! But what do I replace them with?

Thankfully, this is not a pressing issue for us right now. Baby X is still a champion nurser and I don't remember the last time he had a bottle. However, not everyone can nurse their babies.

Sometimes bottles are required (and thank goodness we have the technology to nurture infants without wet nurses, which was the only option for a long time!)

Any ideas?
::: Sideline editiorial :::
In Europe, #7 plastic has been banned in products for children. Meanwhile, our illustrious FDA says there's not enough evidence to consider such an action here. It was no secret that the plastics lobby campaigned hard on this issue! Almost every recall story I read makes me trust the FDA less and less. I think it's time our government created an independently funded organization that was prohibited from getting money from anywhere else to be in charge of food and drug safety. Maybe they can do independent studies of medication safety as well, instead of relying on Big Pharma to tell them if something is safe or not.
Yes! Mama actually endorses the creation of more government! Maybe we can get rid of most of the federal Department of Education in order to pay for it.

The National Institute of Health thinks this is a concern, even though the FDA does not. This is a 400 page paper on their review of current data from around the world. Table 10 on p. 37 records a British finding that infants bottles caused a BPA intake of 7-8 μg/kg of bodyweight per day; however, toxic levels in humans have not been adequately studied (I hear the Canadians are on it, though).

Labels: children, health, Recalls, Works For Me Wednesday

Toxic chemical found in baby formula, in doses high enough to cause harm. It appears only to affect liquid formula (ready to eat or concentrated).

H/T Radical Catholic Mom

Labels: health, Recalls

Now hear this, ye family and friends who are wont to purchase plastic entertainment devices for Mama's children: No Made In China allowed. And no drum sets, but that's a long standing rule.

When you can't trust Dora, you know there's a problem. When you have to wait until after bedtime to inspect Thomas the Tank, it's bad. Now there are roofies in their toys too?

Enough.

In addition to our own children's safety, I think it is immoral to buy toys that I know are made with lead paint, etc., from a land that I know doesn't have any concern for its workers. There's no OSHA over there. I shudder to think about the health effects on Chinese workers - and we're not just talking long hours or sweatshop conditions either. We're talking slowly poisoning their brains with heavy metals, making it less and less likely they will be able to protest or help themselves with every breath of lead dust they take.

I've broken it down in a three step program:
1. Prevent 2. Eliminate 3. Substitute

I'll be posting later on what we will actually do for step 3, since almost ALL toys are made in China. We are also having an allowance issue; I don't let them spend their whole allowance on food, but a trip to the dollar store was like a cruise to Shangri-La to them. No more DollarTree toys. What's a boy to spend his quarters on?

BTW, I contacted Hasbro directly to ask, and Tinkertoys and LiteBrites (two toys we don't have but were on my list for the year) are made in China as well. Matchbox cars are from Thailand or Malaysia, so hopefully that is some kind of reprieve!

There. Step 1 is taken care of - we will not bring any more new Made In China toys into the house.

Today, my dilemma is what to do with the mountain of toys that we already have.

Step 2: Eliminate
And we have toys. I worked as a Discovery Toy consultant for three years. Add that to 9 years of multiple birthdays and Christmases, and you get the idea. We never threw out Mr R's baby toys because there is always a baby in the house. And those babies acquired new toys. We have a mountain of toys.

It's time for a clean out. Most of the toys are in the play room, and thus centrally located (theoretically). I have already combed through and gotten rid of dinosaurs. I went ahead and secretly tossed Dora and pals when the girls were asleep, even though their particular playset was not recalled. I ditched the wooden blocks that were painted. Mostly, I've been quietly, without fanfare, picking up and tossing the toys that annoy me by crunching underfoot and/or used to tease someone.

It's easy to toss the toys that are still on the shelf, in their organizational bucket, and that are rarely played with. Now I am facing tossing bags full of toys.

So, I will prioritize, so as not to shock the children or my frugal heart.

Painted toys that say Made in China have got to go. This includes all Happy Meal toys. (Cry me a river.)

Rubberized plastic toys made in China are going as well. This will be heartbreaking, as my children have some very realistic large animals (they are about the size of a newborn baby) that my mother got them a few years ago from a teacher store. Mr R in particular loves his hyena. I might let that one slide... for a bit.

Painted blocks - go.

For now, hard plastic non-painted toys will stay. Army men and Marbleworks, rejoice! Stuffed animals will stay. Dress up clothes will stay.

It doesn't just stop at toys.

I already threw out Baby X's bibs. There is often lead in the vinyl lining - it makes the plastic more pliable. They were terrycloth backed with thin vinyl to make them waterproof. He's likely to gum the bib, so out they went. I'm kicking around the idea of tossing the boys' vinyl lunchboxes as well, but haven't acted because they are unlikely to teeth on them.

Yesterday I tossed my mixing bowls. Baby C dropped and broke my most fabulous Batter Bowl from Pampered Chef, which I used everyday. A couple of weeks later, I happened into a Tuesday Morning and found a cute set of mixing bowls in five graduated sizes, including the rare but useful Giants Live Here size. They were colorful, ceramic (I didn't want metal or plastic) and had pour spouts. Even better - $14.99 for all 5. However, the bowls get extremely hot in the microwave and they started chipping. In a word, they were cheap, even though they seemed high quality. When I turned the bowl over - yep! Made in China. Since I have no idea what is in the painted glaze, which was already compromised from the chips, and since I prepare my family's food in them, out they went too. I guess I'll stick to Pyrex until I get invited to a Pampered Chef party.

Items I'm uncertain about I'll slowly be contacting the manufacturers to see if they need to go or stay. I e-mailed the Lego Group this morning about Duplos and Bionicles.

Baby C's birthday is in two weeks, and then the Christmas marathon begins. We need to get rid of some toys anyway. Anybody know where Perler Beads come from? I've tossed the box.

Labels: children, Family Life, health, Recalls

My kids have seen 13,463 commercials for AquaDots. My oldest, in particular, has been trying to convince me of their superiority to Perler Beads for quite some time.

They are being recalled. If the beads are swallowed, they contain a chemical that converts into the date rape drug and causes seizures, coma, and death. Two children have died. ***Updated to add*** The children didn't die. They fell into an unresponsive coma. Sorry for the mistake.

Sigh. Rocks and sticks for Christmas this year, kids. At least I know the risks of those!

Oh, and BTW, go here to see if you own any of the wagons, tops, toy dishes, music boxes, cars, or toy robots that were also recalled today.

Labels: Recalls

Another recall: WalMart recalls their "realistic" plastic toy animals.



Great. I know I've got at least three sets of the dinosaurs, and I think perhaps one set of the Jungle Animals. Actually, looking at the picture, I know we have the jungle animals because the hippo is always on the floor, and it looks a lot like something that fell out of a diaper when viewed from above, and more than once my husband has been totally grossed out (including an occasional girlie squeal) by what ends up being a plastic pachyderm.

What is especially concerning is that the lead is not in the paint, it's in the plastic base material. I thought we'd be safe this Christmas if we stayed away from painted toys. Now I'm not so sure!

What's next?

Labels: In The News, Recalls

Thomas the Tank just can't catch a break.

More toys recalled:

Thomas the Tank

Gardening tools - sold at Jo-Ann Fabrics (I saw these listed as a great find on a Montessori loop earlier this year - check your kid's school too!

Gardening Tools and Furniture - sold at Target

Knights of the Sword figures

Are you sitting down? Here's a shocker: All of these things are Made in China.


And... your baby's bed might be on a recall list:
Kolcraft recalls 425,000 playyards

Simplicity recalls 1,000,000 wooden cribs


Our children receive $1.00 as allowance, and a trip to the Dollar Store is much anticipated. Husband dear and I discusses disallowing them to purchase toys there because of the Made in China recalls, but it never really got off the ground. Guess what? No more Made in China toys around here for a while!

Labels: In The News, Recalls

What is the world coming to? There is quite a round up of toy recalls out there. Now, I would expect to see a few Dollar Tree recalls - their toys are cheap and I've never seen one that wasn't a choking hazard. I previously posted about Magnetix, a good brand name, but perhaps just a fluke.

But Easy Bake Ovens?

Thomas the Tank Cars? We have the Skarloey car. It has teeth marks in it. Wonder how much damage that's done to the kids? How will I ever know?

Polly Pockets sent three kids to the hospital?

Spending more on the big names doesn't guarantee safety. Keep an eye on the kids when they are playing. Know how to do the Heimlich maneuver. Pay $10 to Red Cross and learn CPR. It's money well spent.

See a full list of toy recalls here.

Labels: children, health, Recalls

I found out that there's a recall on my secret cavity fighting weapon.

Agent Cool Blue, despite looking like antifreeze, is inadequately preserved and might be growing creepy crawlies. Check the link for refund info.

Labels: Need to Know, Recalls