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sharp edges

This past weekend my 11 month-old daughter Olivia completely severed the tip of her pinkie finger and partially severed her ring finger when she grabbed onto our oven drawer (not the oven door, but the drawer between the oven and the floor that is usually used for pots and pans), then fell and caught her fingers on an extremely sharp metal wedge behind the drawer facing. My wife and I have filed a report with the Consumer Products Safety Commission, and we've contacted Whirlpool (the producer of our particular oven). CPSC is in the process of determining whether this type of injury has occurred before. Whirlpool has stated that the oven likely does NOT have a materials defect, and that all of the ovens of that make and model were produced the same way. They are in the process of determining whether to issue a safety advisory or a recall.

Olivia is our third child. We have never read a child-proofing guide or child care manual that informed us to check the metal behind the oven drawer. Even the child-proofing guides we were provided with at the hospital made no mention of this hazard. It was something we never would have thought about before this incident. I would have chopped my own finger off without a moment of hesitation, in order to prevent this from happening to Olivia.

We want to ensure the information is made available to other parents, to prevent this from happening to any other child. We know IAFCS has the ability to get the word out, and we hope you will help.
As a member of the INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR CHILD SAFETY, Babysecure is pleased to pass on the above letter.

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