[themify_box style=”gray rounded note” ]Editor’s Note: From time to time we like to invite local experts from the community to answer questions about parenting and raising kids in Huntsville and North Alabama. Today we asked Morris Lilienthal, with Martinson & Beason, P.C. to address questions about protecting your family from recalled products.[/themify_box]

When purchasing a new stroller, car seat, or new toy, if you’re like most people, you tear open the box to start using your new product and don’t give a second thought to the registration card accompanying it, but this is a potentially deadly mistake!

The Importance of Registering Your New Products

Many Americans don’t realize the importance of registering their new products. Filling out and sending in the registration card or signing up online for every little thing you buy seems like an unnecessary hassle when you just want to start using the product. What most people don’t know is this small step could someday prevent serious injury and even save your life or the life of a loved one.

When you register your product, the company will know to notify you if your product is ever recalled due to a dangerous defect. Unfortunately, such harmful defects are all too frequent: thousands of people are injured and killed each year by defective products. A toy for young children could have small parts that are a choking hazard, or a defectively designed car seat could put your child at a high-risk of injury in an accident.

One of the best ways to keep you and your family safe and informed about recalls is to register to receive recall alerts from the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA) by simply following the links and registering your email address. You can also check these sites for safety bulletins for products that have issues but have not been recalled.

Precautions when Buying Used Products

With the high cost of children’s products, many parents will buy used toys, swings, strollers and car seats to save money. If you are considering buying used products, it is extremely important to thoroughly inspect the product for any operational and structural defects and to verify whether the product has been recalled. By researching the CPSC website for the used product you can have peace of mind knowing your child’s new used product doesn’t have any known safety problems.

It is also important to be very cautious if you are considering purchasing a used car seat for your child. In general, it is not a good idea to buy a used car seat, unless it is from a trusted seller. Even if there are no recalls on the car seat, it is difficult to verify whether there are any structural defects in the car seat that could cause it to fail in accident situation.

It’s an extra step, but well worth the time to register your new products and research your used ones to make sure you little ones are using safe products.

Helpful Social Media Product Safety Pages

• Get U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission updates on Facebook
• Get U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission updates on Twitter
• Get National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) updates on Facebook
• Get National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) updates on Twitter

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[themify_box style=”light-blue”] ABOUT THE EXPERT: Morris Lilienthal is a shareholder with the Huntsville law firm of Martinson & Beason, P.C., and has been practicing law for over fourteen years. By representing injury victims and their families Morris is eager to help others who are going through an extremely rough and scary time in their life by helping them put the pieces back together. Morris and his wife Shannon have one son, Wyatt. Shannon is a teacher at Madison Elementary School. An avid sports fan, Morris enjoys playing and watching sports when not practicing law.
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