(RepublicanDaily.org) – Following the tragic death of a baby and a serious injury sustained by a 9-month old, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission (CPSC) has issued a recall for water bead toys sold at Target and Target.com.
The product, which has the name “Chuckle & Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits,” is produced and manufactured by Buffalo Games. The danger primarily comes from ingestion, as the beads absorb moisture which enlarges them significantly from their original size. The incidents involving the water beads saw the children ingest them accidentally, which lead to the enlargement of the beads, which in turn caused intestinal blockage. The CPSC advisory states that the beads may cause “serious injury or death if ingested.” The beads look very innocent, and for many kids, can look a lot like small pieces of round candy.
The advisory from the CPSC says that parents and guardians should immediately “stop using and take away the recalled water beads from children.” More than 50,000 units of the bead sets are subject to the recall. The toys were sold at Target from March 2022 through November 2022, and cost around $15.
In an interview for Today.com, Hannah Rief, the mother of one of the victims of the water beads, says that her daughter, Letty, ingested the beads by accident. She did not even know that her daughter, who experienced constant vomiting every 30 to 40 minutes, had eaten one of the beads until she brought 14-month old to the hospital and doctors eventually found and extracted the water bead, which had grown exponentially inside her daughter’s body.
“They’re colorful and they look like candy,” she told the news outlet. She added that the toys were a gift to her older daughter, and despite cleaning and vacuuming them all up, some small pieces still remained on the carpet, one of which were what Letty put in her mouth. She also said that doctors had only found it through a CT scan, but even then, the object was hard to identify because it was radiolucent and was similar to the color of the intestine.
Since then, Hannah as been speaking about the experience so that other families can be aware of the dangers posed by the toys.
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