Recalls & Safety · Notice
Skip Hop Elmo teethers recalled
About 22,660 Baby Sesame Street Elmo silicone teethers are recalled after four reports of the black eyes coming off. The refund comes as a gift card.
Skip Hop is recalling about 22,660 Baby Sesame Street Elmo silicone teethers in the United States because the black eyes can detach from the teether if it is frozen, which the Consumer Product Safety Commission describes as a risk of serious injury or death from choking.
The detail that matters
The failure is conditional. The eyes come off if the teether has been frozen, which is exactly what a large number of parents do with a teether, on the advice of almost every guide to soothing a teething baby. A product that behaves safely at room temperature and sheds a small part after a night in the freezer is the kind of hazard a household would never anticipate.
Skip Hop has received four consumer reports of the eyes detaching. No injuries have been reported.
A further 3,177 units were sold in Canada.
Identifying it
The teether is shaped like Elmo's face, in red, orange and white with black eyes, and comes with a textured blue key and a fabric crayon box in beige, blue, green, yellow, orange and red. The model number is 9R263210, printed on a red tag with the Skip Hop brand name attached to the side of the crayon box.
The remedy
Stop using it and take it away from the child first; that instruction comes before any refund step in every CPSC notice for a children's product, and it is the one that matters today.
The refund comes as a gift card rather than cash, usable at any William Carter Company brand store, which includes Carter's, Skip Hop, OshKosh B'gosh and Little Planet. Claims go through the recall website, which also gives instructions for disposing of the teether.
A gift card instead of cash is permitted where the recall notice states it, as this one does, and the CPSC publishes the agreed remedy. If a notice says refund and a company offers only credit that the notice does not mention, that is worth raising.
Do not pass it on
Recalled children's products are not to be resold or given away, and a teether is precisely the item that travels between families and into second-hand groups. The disposal step in the notice exists for that reason.
Baby product recalls: what to check covers the mandatory standards that cover infant sleep products and how to read a children's recall, and the child product recalls tracker lists the current notices with the hazard, the units and the remedy for each.
What to do
- Stop using the teether, take it away from the child, and check the model number 9R263210 on the red tag. Official link
- Claim the refund at the recall website, which also gives the disposal instructions. Official link
- Check the rest of the nursery against the child product tracker while you are there. Official link
Questions readers ask
- Why is the Skip Hop Elmo teether recalled?
- The black eyes can detach if the teether is frozen, posing a choking hazard. Skip Hop received four reports of the eyes detaching; no injuries have been reported.
- How do I know I have the recalled teether?
- It is the Baby Sesame Street Elmo silicone teether, model number 9R263210, shaped like Elmo’s face with a blue textured key and a fabric crayon box. The model number is on a red Skip Hop tag on the side of the crayon box.
- What is the refund?
- A gift card usable at Carter’s, Skip Hop, OshKosh B’gosh and Little Planet stores, claimed through the recall website, which also gives disposal instructions. Stop using the teether and take it away from the child first.
Filed under: Child product recalls: hazard and remedy
Mentioned:Consumer Product Safety Commission
How we reported this
Built from 2 primary documents linked in the Source Card. Every number was copied from the document, not from another outlet.
Written by Mirza Seraj Baig · Checked against the documents in the source card (editorial standards).