It shouldn’t take disaster to get action

My daughter is 4 months old and up until last week, she used a certain brand of pacifier when falling asleep. Last week, the silicone nipple started ripping apart in the middle of the night. It was within a centimeter or 2 of ripping off completely. Had my daughter not spit out the pacifier in her sleep, I’m quite certain the broken-off piece would have lodged in her throat and the unthinkable happen. Thankfully, she was not injured, though.

My daughter has no teeth yet, but even so, no infant/toddler should be able to bite through a silicon pacifier. I’m convinced there must be something wrong with this particular batch of pacifiers, but apparently no one bats an eye at almost dying or almost being critically injured. I’ve been in contact with a claims administrator at the maker of the pacifier, but they’re slow to respond. They’ve asked that I return the pacifier to them for research and I might hear back from them in two to three weeks. Oh, they also asked if they could send me replacement pacifiers (ha!).

In an effort to raise the issue with the company, I’ve reached out to multiple lawyers for consult or representation. Though they all think this is a serious issue, almost dying or almost being critically injured doesn’t pay the bills. The most that anyone has given me is some free legal advice that “these big product manufacturers ... won’t take a complaint seriously enough unless and until multiple people are actually harmed by their product.”

Let me be clear, I’m not looking for any kind of settlement or payout. I, truly, only care that no child is injured or dies from a defective pacifier. As the parent community, we shouldn’t have to wait until a child dies for a company to take action.

Erica Goode

Lake Zurich