Fisher-Price recalls more than 11 million toys, chairs

Toy maker Fisher-Price Thursday announced a recall of more than 11 million toys and high chairs in the United States and Canada because of hazards to young children.

The recall includes tricycles, high chairs, floor sets with inflatable balls and wheelies made by the suburban Buffalo company, a division of Mattel Inc. About 70 "incidents" have been reported, including children's injuries on the tricycles and high chairs that required medical attention, the U.S. Consumer Products Safety Commission said.

The Trike's protruding plastic ignition key can cause "serious injury" if a child sits or falls on it, the commission said. The pegs on the rear legs of the high chairs have resulted in seven children requiring stitches and one suffering a tooth injury.

The commission has warned consumers to stop using the recalled products.

In a letter to parents, the East Aurora, N.Y., company directed them to the website service.mattel.com/us/recall.asp, where they could get replacement products or a repair kit.

Fisher-Price said that it "initiated the recall process" after routine monitoring of its products that involves "constantly" gathering and reviewing feedback on its products. "Through this monitoring we identified a few issues we want you to know about," the letter said.

It said it initiated the recall process in conjunction with the CPSC and a Canadian agency.

Some of the recalled items began selling as early as January 1997 and as late as last month.

In 2006, John and Megan Porter of East Northport bought their 4-year-old daughter, Susannah, an Ocean Wonders Kick & Crawl Aquarium floor toy set, with inflatable balls, when she was an infant.

They haven't used it for their 1-year-old daughter because they don't have the space. They seemed perplexed by the timing of the recall. "My wife thought it was odd they took so long to recall" the items, he said. "It seems to me that if there was a problem, they should have figured it out before."

Retailers said they have responded by removing the items immediately from their websites or stores.

According to the Toys R Us and Babies R Us websites, the stores had carried 16 of the recalled products. The company apparently began removing current products from the website Thursday morning. For instance, the Little People Wheelies Stand 'N Play Rampway was no longer available online by midmorning.

In response to a query, Walmart, the country's largest toy retailer, said, "When we learned of the recall of select Fisher-Price children's products we took immediate action. We no longer carry many of the products identified, and are removing any remaining affected products from store shelves as well as removing impacted items from our website. As an added safety measure we also implemented a register block to prevent sales in stores."

The retailer said that consumers could return items to the stores for a full refund or can contact Fisher-Price.