In December 2011, a 5-month old New York boy and his twin sister were placed in a collapsible PeaPod Travel Bed for their daily nap, but according to a friend of the twins’ family, the boy inexplicably never woke up, while the girl was found to be fine. Nearly a year later, a recall has been announced by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission that could shed some light on this tragic occurrence. The CPSC and KidCo Inc. have issued a recall for approximately 220,000 PeaPod and PeaPod Plus Travel Beds after it was determined that they pose a serious suffocation hazard for small children.
In addition to the aforementioned death, the CPSC has received six reports of children becoming trapped within the PeaPod’s inner lining, and two of those reports involved children that were found crying under the bed’s foam mattress. Health Canada has also received three similar reports of children becoming trapped in the bed area, which features what is supposed to be a zippered compartment for the mattress. In some cases, though, the CPSC determined that the mattresses had not been properly inserted into the compartments, which could obviously lead to suffocation hazards.
The tents have been sold in stores and on Amazon since January 2005 from $70 to $100, and the affected models include the P100 (Teal), P101 (Red), P102 (Lime), P103 (Periwinkle), P104 (Ocean), P201 (Princess/Red), P202 (Camouflage), P203 (Quick Silver), P204 (Sagebrush), P205 (Cardinal), and P900CS (Green). Consumers can find the model numbers on a tag on the underside of the PeaPod tents. KidCo and the CSPC are urging consumers to stop using the PeaPod Travel Beds immediately and contact the manufacturer at (855) 847-8600 if they have one of the affected models.
The company will begin issuing free repair kits for the PeaPod and PeaPod Plus Travel Beds in December.