WASHINGTON -- Peg Perego recalled hundreds of thousands of strollers Tuesday because children can become trapped and strangled between trays on them. One death has already been reported.

A six-month-old boy from Tarzana, Calif. died of strangulation in a stroller in 2004, while a seven-month-old girl from New York was nearly strangled in 2006, according to Peg Perego USA Inc. The company said entrapment and strangulation can take place, particularly among those younger than a year old, when the child is not harnessed into the stroller. If unharnessed, children can pass through the opening between the tray and the seat bottom and the child's neck and head can become trapped by the tray.

Peg Perego is recalling approximately 223,000 strollers, which include Venezia and Pliko-P3 strollers in various colors, made between January 2004 and September 2007.

Only strollers with a child tray and one cup holder are part of the recall. Strollers with a bumper bar in front of the child or a tray with two cup holders are not included in this recall.

The company said the strollers were made before a voluntary industry standard was implemented in January 2008 that addresses the height of the opening between the stroller's tray and the seat bottom. The voluntary standard requires larger stroller openings that prevent infant entrapment and strangulation hazards.

The model numbers are:

Pliko-P3 Stroller Model Numbers Venezia Stroller Model Numbers

IPFR28US34xxxxxxxx IPPF28NA32 IPVA13MU09

IPFT28NA63 IPPF28NA57 IPVA13MU10

IPFT28NA64 IPPF28NA65 IPVA13US09

IPP328MU10 IPPF28NA66 IPVA13US10

IPP328MU09 IPPF28NA67 IPVA13US32

IPP328US09 IPPF28NA68 IPVA13US34

IPP328US10 IPPO28US32 IPVC13NA32

IPP329US10 IPPO28US34 IPVC13NA34

IPPA28US32 IPPO28US62

IPPA28US33 IPPO28US69

IPPA28US34 IPPO28US70

IPPD28NA34 IPPO28US71

The model number is located on a white label on the back of the Pliko P-3's stroller seat and on the Venezia stroller's footboard. "Peg Perego" and "Venezia" or "Pliko-P3" are printed on the side of the strollers.

The Pliko-P3 strollers were sold for between $270 and $330, while the Venezia strollers sold for $350 to $450. The strollers were sold at various retailers, including Buy Buy Baby and Babies R Us.

Separately, Kolcraft Enterprises Inc. is recalling some strollers due to potential falling and choking hazards.

The company is recalling about 5,600 of the Contours Options LT double strollers with model number ZT012 sold between February and July. However, no injuries have been reported.

The front wheel assembly can break, which could lead to a child falling out of the stroller. And the nuts that hold the stroller's basket support screws in place can detach on strollers made in January and February. The detached nuts are a potential choking hazard.

Kolcraft has received six reports of front caster wheels breaking and two reports of the basket's support screws and nuts detaching.

The model number and date the stroller was made can be found on a label on the stroller's rear leg. The strollers were involved in the recall include those in black with red canopies and accents and those in gray with yellow canopies and accents. The strollers have one mesh basket below the two seats.

The strollers were sold for about $250 in Burlington Coat Factory stores, at juvenile product specialty stores and on the websites of Amazon, Target and other retailers.

Original article from the Huffington Post here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/24/peg-perego-recall-strollers_n_1698909.html?ir=Parents

This is an article written by Maya Hammer, a psychologist who regularly does mental health workshops here at the cafe.

Maintaining a Healthy Relationship/Marriage Postpartum
By Maya Hammer
=

Having a baby is hard on relationships!  Even happy and functional relationships become strained after the baby arrives, or after the arrival of a second or third child.  There is less time for each of you as individuals and for you as a couple.  Your relationship becomes transactional as you negotiate responsibilities with very little sleep. Here are some quick tips for maintaining a healthy relationship: 

Communicate Openly:  Be honest with your partner/spouse about how you are feeling so that you avoid build up of anger and resentment.  Some moms report the need for empathy and emotional support, while others require more practical support such as breaks from the kids and help with laundry, cooking, or cleaning.  Be specific about the type of help that you need.  Seasoned moms Stacie Cockrell, Cathy O’Neill, and Julia Stone shed light on some of the communication challenges new and experienced parents may face in their insightful and humourous book Babyproofing Your Marriage. 

Take care of yourselves:  Each of you requires time for self-care so that you can be loving, patient, and present when you spend time together.  Encourage your partner to engage in fun, healthy, and meaningful activities and ask him or her to support you in your endeavours.  Renee Peterson Trudeau’s book The Mother’s Guide to Self-Renewal suggests ways to reconnect with yourself, create balance, and attain optimal well-being in your new role and identity as a parent. 

 

Divide Labour:  Make a list of chores and responsibilities and assign yourselves to those that you enjoy most.  Let go of the chores you are not in charge of.  Outsource when you can:  hire a cleaner, a personal chef, postpartum doula, or child care provider.  Prioritize important tasks and leave other items on your To Do list for a later date.

Plan dates:  Plan weekly or biweekly dates.  Hire a babysitter or ask a friend or family member to babysit so that you can get out of the house.  Enjoy home dates too when you leave laundry or dishes for later so you can watch a movie, play scrabble, or enjoy a glass of wine.

Nurture intimacy:  Physical intimacy facilitates emotional connection.  Plan a date for sex, preferably daytime if possible as you may be less tired.  If you are not interested in intercourse, be creative!  There are many ways to be intimate. Great Sex for Moms by Valerie Davis Raskin provides sound advice for reclaiming your sex life.

Couples counselling is a safe place to voice concerns, explore issues, mediate discussions, learn effective communication strategies, and deepen your connection to each other.

Maya Hammer, M.A., Counselling Psychology                               

www.mayahammer.ca

A couple of days ago a woman came in for coffee. She said she works at Starbucks but wanted a good coffee so she came to us!

Wow, it’s been awhile. It’s amazing how time slips away isn’t it? The last time I wrote I don’t think it wasn’t even warm out yet. So much has happened in the last while that I don’t really even know what to focus on for this entry.

Most recently there was the Taste of Little Italy. It was mayhem, which any of you who were around for it, already know that. The guys next door to us were blasting the worst house music ever. Not that there is any good house music (in my humble opinion), but this was particularly bad. And they were blasting it at volumes approaching a 747 taking off. So naturally our solution was to bring in a DJ of our own to play R&B and hip hop, also, not my music of choice, but it beat the hell outta the House guy. It was deafening. Imagine me and Davina screaming at full volume across the 18 inches separating us from the customers, ‘CORN OR POTATO!?’. But whatever, fun was had by all. We had Heather, face-painter extraordinaire decorating the kids and Sandra, photographer extraordinaire, taking pix for Fathers Day. We sold an unprecedented amount of Sangria. Davina and I worked about 10,000 hours that weekend and had a very relaxing Monday at the spa and The Keg. We may start staying open late on Saturday nights and bringing in the same DJ to inject the place with a bit of night life. 

Reaching a bit further back, my son Kai had his first real accident. For those of you who haven’t met the little tyke, he’s 3 and a half. He climbs everything. He’s a typical kid. I was working a split shift a few weeks back, meaning that I opened at 8 and Davina came around noon so I could leave for a few hours and I was supposed to be back at 3:30 so we could work a birthday party together. I took her car and grabbed Kai and went to Christie Pits. He was playing on the monkey bars and long story short, he somehow whacked the back of his head on the metal bar. There was blood everywhere and when I finally found the cut I discovered that ‘cut’ was the wrong word. It was definitely a gash. Off to Sick Kids where we spent the next few hours climbing the walls and furniture (me the walls and Kai the furniture). They cleaned it and then stapled it closed. They basically put Kai in a straitjacket to do it. We arrived back at the café at 5:30 just as last of the party were leaving. Davina was a champ working the party alone and Kai was a champ getting his head stapled shut. I was less then champ-like as I didn’t really do anything at all. That’s the end of that story.

In other news, we are thinking about starting an online Garage Sale. Just send us a description, a picture and your contact information of the items you want to sell and we’ll post them on our site. Drop off and pick up can be done here at the café. Sound good?

Also, we are going to add to the menu. Details to follow.

I guess that’s all for now. Oh ya, it’s been kinda slow around here since the weather got warm, so I formally invite you to come and enjoy the A/C, the smoothies, the ice cream, the Sangria and our charming company during the heat!

Thinking of Having Kids? Do this 11 step program first!

by Brenna Gray Foster on Saturday, 01 January 2011 at 11:14

Lesson 1

1. Go to the grocery store.

2. Arrange to have your salary paid directly to their head office.

3. Go home.

4. Pick up the paper.

5. Read it for the last time.

Lesson 2

Before you finally go ahead and have children, find a couple who already are parents and berate them about their...

1. Methods of discipline.

2. Lack of patience.

3. Appallingly low tolerance levels.

4. Allowing their children to run wild.

5. Suggest ways in which they might improve their child's breastfeeding, sleep habits, toilet training, table manners, and overall behavior.

Enjoy it because it will be the last time in your life you will have all the answers.

Lesson 3

A really good way to discover how the nights might feel...

1. Get home from work and immediately begin walking around the living room from 5PM to 10PM carrying a wet bag weighing approximately 8-12 pounds, with a radio turned to static (or some other obnoxious sound) playing loudly. (Eat cold food with one hand for dinner)

2. At 10PM, put the bag gently down, set the alarm for midnight, and go to sleep.

3. Get up at 12 and walk around the living room again, with the bag, until 1AM.

4. Set the alarm for 3AM.

5. As you can't get back to sleep, get up at 2AM and make a drink and watch an infomercial.

6. Go to bed at 2:45AM.

7. Get up at 3AM when the alarm goes off.

8. Sing songs quietly in the dark until 4AM.

9. Get up. Make breakfast. Get ready for work and go to work (work hard and be productive)

Repeat steps 1-9 each night. Keep this up for 3-5 years. Look cheerful and together.

Lesson 4

Can you stand the mess children make? T o find out...

1. Smear peanut butter onto the sofa and jam onto the curtains.

2. Hide a piece of raw chicken behind the stereo and leave it there all summer.

3. Stick your fingers in the flower bed.

4. Then rub them on the clean walls.

5. Take your favorite book, photo album, etc. Wreck it.

6. Spill milk on your new pillows. Cover the stains with crayons. How does that look?

Lesson 5

Dressing small children is not as easy as it seems.

1. Buy an octopus and a small bag made out of loose mesh.

2. Attempt to put the octopus into the bag so that none of the arms hang out.

Time allowed for this - all morning.

Lesson 6

Forget the BMW and buy a mini-van. And don't think that you can leave it out in the driveway spotless and shining. Family cars don't look like that.

1. Buy a chocolate ice cream cone and put it in the glove compartment.

Leave it there.

2. Get a dime. Stick it in the CD player.

3. Take a family size package of chocolate cookies. Mash them into the back seat. Sprinkle cheerios all over the floor, then smash them with your foot.

4. Run a garden rake along both sides of the car.

Lesson 7

Go to the local grocery store. Take with you the closest thing you can find to a pre-school child. (A full-grown goat is an excellent choice). If you intend to have more than one child, then definitely take more than one goat. Buy your week's groceries without letting the goats out of your sight. Pay for everything the goat eats or destroys. Until you can easily accomplish this, do not even contemplate having children.

Lesson 8

1. Hollow out a melon.

2. Make a small hole in the side.

3. Suspend it from the ceiling and swing it from side to side.

4. Now get a bowl of soggy Cheerios and attempt to spoon them into the swaying melon by pretending to be an airplane.

5. Continue until half the Cheerios are gone.

6. Tip half into your lap. The other half, just throw up in the air.

You are now ready to feed a nine- month-old baby.

Lesson 9

Learn the names of every character from Sesame Street , Barney, Disney, the Teletubbies, and Pokemon. Watch nothing else on TV but PBS, the Disney channel or Noggin for at least five years. (I know, you're thinking What's 'Noggin'?) Exactly the point.

Lesson 10

Make a recording of Fran Drescher saying 'mommy' repeatedly. (Important: no more than a four second delay between each 'mommy'; occasional crescendo to the level of a supersonic jet is required). Play this tape in your car everywhere you go for the next four years. You are now ready to take a long trip with a toddler.

Lesson 11

Start talking to an adult of your choice. Have someone else continually tug on your skirt hem, shirt- sleeve, or elbow while playing the 'mommy' tape made from Lesson 10 above. You are now ready to have a conversation with an adult while there is a child in the room.

This is all very tongue in cheek; anyone who is parent will say 'it's all worth it!' Share it with your friends, both those who do and don't have kids. I guarantee they'll get a chuckle out of it. Remember, a sense of humor is one of the most important things you'll need when you become a parent!

Of the whipped cream saga, that is.

So if you've been following the blogs, the photos, the video, you know that the whipped cream canister has been an ongoing thorn in my, um, side, since we opened.

There hasn't been an entry about it lately because frankly, we gave up. We've had no delicious homemade whip to serve because funny as the process has been, it's actually been a huge pain in the ass and I'm tired of doubling up my laundry with white gloppy cream. Ya, I said it.

Anyway, yesterday Davina was feeling brave and took another crack at it. Then she did something totally unheard of. She read the instructions.

F*&K!!!!

Ya, we were doing it wrong. Apparently we were supposed to A) attach the CO2 cartridge B) shake it precisesly 4 times and C) remove the cartridge.

The fact that we left the cartridge attached and shook it vigorously everytime we used it is what led to the constant splooging.

In our defense the instructions for this thing are ridiculously long and the portion which actually pertained to us was, like one line buried in the middle.

Oy. I say Oy.

* EDIT *

I just attempted to use it myself. I carefully removed the canister from the fridge. I did not shake it. The whip cream came out liquidy. Oozie even. I gave it a quick shake and voila! Whipped cream. By George, I think we've got it!

Amanda Spakowski is the founder of The Nesting Place and she wrote this lovely article for us!

It's mother's day coming up next weekend. It's a day to celebrate you as a mother, but do you know who that is? Many women don't immediately feel like a mother once their child is born, and instead gradually
learn to see themselves in ways that fit with the identity of "mother." In the meantime, the self she has previously known herself to be feels completely out of reach as her daily activities, capabilities and expectations have shifted so dramatically.

Many people understand that life with baby warrants a lot of changes, but what that actually feels like for them is often a surprise. Some women feel themselves drop into the identity of "Mother" right away,
and maybe have even identified themselves as Mothers long before their baby was born. But for the women who do not feel like a mother right
away, the shift in her self identify after baby can be a place of real loneliness or loss, even while at the same time loving their child and new family.

This month we encourage you to explore activities and events that cultivate your self care and nourish the growing sense of 'Me' that evolves alongside your growing children. The Mother's Day Soirée
(http://mothersdaysoiree.eventbrite.com/) with speakers Heather Clark, author of "Chai Tea Sunday" and fashion stylist Rachel Matthews Burton
will feed your spirit and your fashion sense for a total self make-over. Get out more with your baby by attending our free Baby Wearing Workshop (http://thenestingplace.ca/news_events.php#carrier),
where you'll get to try different carriers with your child that'll enable you to get out of the house (or get more done inside the house) hands free!

Some women will choose to honour their life changes through ritual, journaling or creating artwork. On Friday May 11th, Toronto's Doula Care organization is hosting a Birth Fire at Dufferin Grove beginning at 7pm. Parents are invited to bring memories, wishes or items that
they wish to let go of to burn in the fire.

How might you honour your life changes in motherhood?

Or just take a moment to really listen to the inspiring stories from real life parents in your life. Whatever you do, be gentle with yourself as you gradually grow into your parenting feet. Just as your child takes time to learn to walk on it's own two feet, you too will take time to learn to walk on your parenting legs with confidence.

Amanda Spakowski
Owner/Founder
The Nesting Place
Prenatal Classes & Doula Care
www.TheNestingPlace.ca
thenestingplace.blog.com
amanda@thenestingplace.ca
416-722-3814

 

I think the video speaks for itself.

Stuff you may not know about us. We do birthday parties for kids. We do birthday parties for kids. We do birthday parties for kids. Sorry about the stutter there. Just trying to pop up more in Google. :-)

Seriously. We have had several so far and they have been tremendously successful. Above and beyond the fantastic food and fabulous entertainment, the biggest selling point seems to be that the parents get to spend time with their little one instead of at home in the kitchen alternately burning and under-cooking frozen appetizers from Costco.

We do everything. Just tell us what time you want the food out and then enjoy your party.

Did I mention we do birthday parties for kids?

So Alanna, our EMPLOYEE (I love saying that!) started last weekend. The first time she had to make a hot drink with whipped cream, I was there, ready and waiting with the camera. Davina explained about some of the pressure issues and suggested she give it a try in the sink before firing it at a cup of searing hot liquid. Then Davina stood back.

I, of course, stood a very safe distance away with a camera with a zoom on it. Next think you know.....