Defective: Toy companies continue selling similar products following recalls

Washington, D.C. (InvestigateTV) — For 28 days, Folichia Mitchell wondered if she was going to lose her baby girl to a tiny toy.

“I fell to my knees many times in the hospital, just completely broken and suffering from worrying … and scared of the reality of what was happening,” Mitchell said.

In November 2022, Mitchell said her daughter Kennedy got ahold of a single water bead from a kit that her then 8-year-old brother, who is on the autism spectrum, used for sensory therapy.

That sprinkle-sized bead expanded inside Kennedy’s tiny body and caused a serious bowel obstruction.

“When they’re wheeling her away, and I’m looking at her, it’s like, “Is this the last time I’m going to see her alive?’”

Through the weeks in the hospital, Mitchell made videos she shared on TikTok, documenting the horrors of having her daughter constantly tied to tubes and wires, with uncertainty surrounding each day.

“All that weight just rushes down your arms for a second. And you’re like, she made it through this. Now what’s next?”

And what happened next still haunts Mitchell.

After she almost lost her baby, another mother did lose hers.

That baby died in the months between Folichia’s reports to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, the water bead company and anyone who would listen – and the manufacturer’s eventual recall of the product that now ties these families together.

And even after the recall, InvestigateTV found the company didn’t appear to stop selling all water beads. The day after the recall, Chuckle & Roar still had a different kit with water beads still for sale online. A third remained on the secondary market.

InvestigateTV found that this isn’t a rare occurrence.

The months-long path to a recall - and items remaining on the market that are similar in appearance or function to a pulled product – happen routinely in America due to a set of laws and rules surrounding consumer product safety.

‘It felt like we had been invaded’

Water beads have been around for decades. They used to be used for hydrating plants and as décor in flower vases. But in recent years, manufacturers have marketed them for children.

They look like tiny pieces of plastic, and they start out the size of a cupcake sprinkle. But when exposed to water, the pieces multiply in size and become soft, round blobs that feel like little balls of jelly – something plenty of kids have enjoyed squishing between their fingers and even toes in bathtubs and kiddy pools full of them.

But they’ve also sent thousands of kids to the hospital, according to CPSC numbers. Because as they expand in water, they also can expand inside a child’s body.

In October 2022, Folichia Mitchel bought a set of water beads for her son. He’d used them before as part of his sensory therapy. Caring for her children over the years, she felt she was well-prepared for a possible choking hazard with any toy and even had first aid training and equipment in her house.

“I remember when I bought them in the store, I read the front and back and I saw a choking hazard. And I thought, ‘Okay, I know how to how to keep my kids safe from a choking hazard,’” Mitchell said. “When I brought them in, I didn’t think that any of the children in my home could be put in this position.”

The nature of the beads is they are tiny and nearly impossible to find when they are spilled onto the floor

“Somehow, she ingested one water bead . . . and a pack that I had purchased had 10,000 of the beads in the pack. And one of them caused a bowel obstruction in Kennedy’s body,” Mitchell said.

It took exploratory surgery and then weeks in the hospital for doctors to get Kennedy well enough to go home, Mitchell said. During Kennedy’s first days in the hospital, Mitchell and Kennedy’s dad purged their house of any trace of water beads – including the box in which they’d kept the beads.

“That was on top of the fridge on a shelf in the kitchen, and that went right in a trash bag. And it was brought to the dump that day,” Mitchell said. “Dad moved the fridge. We moved the stove. We changed and replaced the carpet in the living room. We just dove right into our house. And it felt like it had been invaded.”

Throughout her journey, she made videos for TikTok where she found comfort in virtual connection.

“A lot of people responded with support and then became very invested in what was going on with Kennedy. And so I continued to update. And while in the hospital, that gave me a chance to really process what was going on with Kennedy,” Mitchell said.

Ashley Haugen was one mom who saw Folichia’s first video asking for prayers. She’s known as “That Water Bead Lady” online – and on Capitol Hill. Like Mitchell, Haugen too spent days in a hospital waiting for her daughter to recover from a water bead injury in 2017.

“We’ve talked every day since then. And she pointed me in the right direction that when something like this happens with a product, there’s the Consumer Product Safety Commission. I found them online, and I reported the injury,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell said CPSC responded and told her it would be launching an investigation.

Ten months later, in September 2023, Buffalo Games, the company who manufactured the Chuckle & Roar kit Mitchell had, issued a voluntary product recall for the Ultimate Water Activity Kit. That same month, the CPSC also issued a blanket warning for all water beads stating they can be “deadly if swallowed.”

But in the 10 months between Mitchell’s reports to the government and the formal recall and warnings, another baby died.

The months between the report and recall

In July 2023, a 10-month-old baby died after swallowing a water bead from the same kit as Kennedy, according to the CPSC recall notice.

Target, which exclusively sold the kit, stopped selling the beads the same month as Kennedy’s incident – but Mitchell and other moms say parents like that baby’s didn’t know the kits were potentially dangerous because there was no public, formal recall.

“I’m not her mother or her family, but there was a cascade of events that happened. And you know, that poor family had no idea,” Mitchell said.

So while the recall was a relief for Mitchell, the timing wasn’t quick enough.

“It felt like you showed up a day late and a dollar short. And now you’re voluntarily recalling. But we have a mom whose baby is dead now, and now you do a voluntary recall,” Mitchell said. “So I was glad … it was made aware to people across the country that this kit is recalled. But it was still sad because they could have done it much sooner.”

Neither the kit manufacturer nor Target responded to InvestigateTV’s questions about the timeline or other information.

Company continues selling water beads after recall

The day after the formal recall in September 2023, InvestigateTV found Chuckle & Roar was still selling other activity kits with water beads. The company’s Amazon storefront had a Seek & Write Sensory Kit available. When the kit arrived, there were water beads inside.

“They had stopped selling the Ultimate Water Beads before the recall but left their sensory kit that also had water beads in it. And this is from the same company,” Mitchell said. “So it doesn’t feel like you’ve done something good when you stop selling this product because you have a seriously injured child. But the same company has essentially the same water beads just sitting in a different package.”

By December, the online Amazon listing showed the water beads in the Sensory Kit had been replaced with soft pompoms, but a review for the kit indicated a consumer still received water beads stating, “Mine still came with water beads. Stop misleading people!”

Amazon would not comment on specific questions or listings and only sent this statement: “Safety is a top priority at Amazon, and we require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws, regulations and Amazon policies. As of December 2023, Amazon does not allow the sale of water beads that are marketed to children, including as toys, art supplies or for sensory play. Amazon is in the process of notifying customers of the CPSC’s concerns, and issuing refunds, on behalf of our selling partners.”

Amazon has a policy regarding water beads sold on its site, including that listings may not have images of children, indicate they are toys or use words such as “kids.”

However, InvestigateTV has found dozens of brands of water beads remain for sale online – and sometimes have photos in the reviews of young children playing with them – even as they are marketed for floral arrangements.

The way the federal recall law is written specifically for consumer products – which includes items from hair dryers to microwaves, furniture to toys – is that manufacturers get to play a heavy role in what is recalled and how the notice is worded.

CPSC Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said he could not legally comment specifically on the Chuckle & Roar recall. There is a decades’ old provision in CPSC law that generally forbids the agency from commenting on a specific product without authorization from the company. But, Trumka said the breadth of what all should and will be recalled is discussed between the government and companies.

“When we do a recall, there’s this question, ‘Have we have we got the appropriate scope of the recall? Have we made sure it captures every dangerous product in that field?’ And when we do our recalls, we negotiate with the companies for the vast majority of our recalls. And so a lot of it comes down to the company,” Trumka said.

If there has been a death or a serious injury from a product, Trumka explained the commission’s staff might approach the company and ask if there is anything else that carries the same hazard and discuss recalling materially similar products.

“A good company is going to agree to a scope of a recall that includes any similar product that could pose the same hazard, even if it hasn’t hurt anybody yet. That’s what I want to see, “Trumka said. “A bad company is going to fight tooth and nail to keep a recall narrowly tailored to just one part of their inventory that’s already hurt somebody so they can keep making profits off of the rest of their inventory that hasn’t yet hurt anyone. And that’s the absolute opposite of what we want to see.”

For Mitchell, this was her first real exposure to how the government operates – and the constraints built into the consumer protection law.

“Before the recall, you know, CPSC was aware of what happened to Kennedy, and they have policies that they are tied up in and that they have to follow. So even before the recall, it was known that these were dangerous,” Mitchell said. “They have to follow their policies. So while the people in CPSC are great, the policies are outdated, I think... They don’t reflect safety. And it’s scary, and it is disheartening.”

Similar-looking toys create confusion for consumers

After the Chuckle & Roar recall, InvestigateTV examined other recently-recalled toys and similar-looking products still for sale.

For example, in October 2023, Fisher-Price recalled two toy train cars in its Thomas & Friends Wooden Railway line because the magnets could detach and pose a choking and magnet ingestion hazard.

Other train cars from that same toy line remain for sale, despite appearing to have similar magnets and components.

InvestigateTV bought a recalled car from a small hobby store and compared it with a non-recalled train car. By simply looking, it is impossible to see the difference between the two.

Fisher-Price’s parent company didn’t respond to questions about the train cars, but Trumka noted it can be hard for consumers to simply see a difference – which makes it hard for parents to know what they have at home.

“One thing or two products might look similar, and it turns out only one poses a risk. Maybe they use a different glue or a different manufacturing line. So it’s not always the case the two products that look the same both pose the same risk,” Trumka said. “But what we do want to make sure is that if you have either one of those products when you call the company, it’s clear if you’ve got the dangerous one or the safe one. And if they can’t tell the difference, that they give you the recall remedy either way.”

There is also nuance in recalls being for a particular danger that might apply only to particular age groups. For example, a product intended for older children does not have to meet the same rigorous standards for choking hazards that a baby toy must meet.

In September 2023, Make Believe Ideas recalled seven children’s board books because the plastic rings that held the pages together could detach and pose a choking hazard. While no injuries were reported, the possibility was enough for the voluntary recall.

InvestigateTV bought one of the recalled books from a second-hand website and then bought another board book from the same company that had not been recalled. The plastic rings on both appeared to be identical.

When asked why the second book was not recalled, the company said it was because that book wasn’t intended for younger children.

“The ABC book you bought is not included in the recall. It’s aimed at older children learning the alphabet and also carries an age warning for children under 3 years old due to the pop-out pieces on the cover of the book,” the company wrote.

So while the rings might be the same, the standards and concerns can be different.

The company also added that it tests to “exacting safety standards” and that “this situation is rare.”

More water bead warnings, many remain for sale

In March 2023, the CPSC warned the public about water beads manufactured by two different Chinese companies, Jangostor and Tuladuo. Both sold their products on Amazon and refused to cooperate with a recall, according to the government.

In these cases, the CPSC warnings state that the particular beads contain levels of acrylamide in violation of federal law. Acrylamide is a neurotoxin, according to the EPA, that can potentially cause severe health issues.

“If one of these large water beads is ingested, it can pose a risk of toxicity to children, causing adverse health effects,” the CPSC warning stated.

InvestigateTV found reports from consumers about both companies’ water beads going back to 2021, nearly three years before the warnings were issued.

None of those water beads from the recent warnings appear to still be available on Amazon, but InvestigateTV was able to purchase products that used identical advertising imagery.

The company using those same images, however, said it was not affiliated with those warned against – and that its beads do not contain acrylamide. InvestigateTV has sent the water beads to a CPSC-accredited lab for testing. InvestigateTV received results from one set of water beads sent for testing - the clear water beads. The accredited lab confirmed that acyrlamides were not detected. The other remaining results are pending.

A mission to protect

When it comes to sorting through the thousands of products available online, the CPSC has a special internet surveillance unit. It issues takedown requests.

“You should feel a little bit safer, knowing we have teams of people scouring the internet looking for products that violate our rules and that pose a danger - and that we pull them down, thousands of items per month. And then we have people at the ports of entry screening products before they come into the country and trying to stop as many before they get here as they can,” Trumka said.

Unfortunately, not everything can be caught. The laws shackle the agency and money limits what it can do.

“We definitely cover a ton of ground. But we’re going to play the hand that’s dealt to us until we have a different one,” Trumka said.

The commissioner believes the agency is vastly underfunded and compared the scope of the CPSC’s responsibility to that of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, which as part of its role issues recalls related to cars and trucks.

“By point of comparison, we regulate in our jurisdiction about the same number of deaths that they do in a year. But they’ve got one product category, and we’ve got over 15,000. And with the complexity that comes with all of that breadth of jurisdiction, they have nine times our budget. So you could multiply our budget by nine or 15 or 20, and not waste a dollar. You know, we’d be the best investment in government,” Trumka said.

Kennedy is now 2-years-old. She’s recently enrolled in a dance class. Mitchell is also enrolled in new classes. She’s at a community college in Maine and is waiting to find out if she’s been accepted into nursing school.

“I want to be able to help families. And I know that the staff that I got [when Kennedy was hospitalized] were incredibly kind and informative, and I want to be able to give that to other people,” Mitchell said.

Mitchell is also supporting a ban on water beads along with other mothers from across the country who have lost and nearly lost their children. She attended an announcement of the bill to ban water beads in New Jersey with other moms a few months ago.

“We were really happy with that because that is our way to protect. That is our way to say this should not be happening to families, and we don’t want it to happen anymore,” Mitchell said. “I look at Kennedy every day, and I think, someday you’re going to know everything that that we did. And that’s very important to me.”

InvestigateTV Associate Producer David Awe contributed to research in this story.

Copyright 2024 Gray Media Group, Inc. All rights reserved.