Sunday, October 5, 2008

Carters Tagless Clothes

I remember that my daughter always had a light rash on her upper back. I remember bathing her and wondering if she was allergic to something she was eating, or I was eating, etc. It turns out that this is a VERY common problem. Many moms have gone to their Drs only to be told its excema and given a cream for it. But its NOT excema....its a reaction to the chemicals they are using to stamp on "tags" in tagless baby clothes. Some babies have severe reactions (warning: graphic picts) similar to chemical burns :(

Stepping back from all the details I have to just say that this is something that never even crossed my mind (and im much more paranoid and suspicious than most after what ive learned about other products)! I always thought that organic clothing was over -the-top and not necessary. If I could afford it Id ditch everything we have and buy all new, organic clothes for all the kids (and especially our 8wk old!). The new baby has a light rash there too. He has some of the Carters shirts with the longer, white tag and I wont put them on him anymore (even though they are the cutests and fit the best of all his onesies). A lot of his other clothes are tagless too unfortunately.

It just makes me so sad :(

Nearly all baby clothes are tagless now. These stamps are reportedly made with materials containing phythlates and formaldehyde. YUCK! Its criminal. That junk is sitting on their skin all day and leaching into their body. Its so, so wrong.

You can bet that any clothes I buy from now on will have good 'ole fashioned tags. I read online that BabiesRUs' brand of clothes still have the real thing.

You can read more on Z Recommends . Carters is accepting postage-paid returns of their tagless clothing and the address info is there. I may take them up on that offer....

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

WOW never knew that, we have had the opposite reaction, my daughter has really bad eczema everywhere, and actual tags really irriatate her skin, I just love the new tagless shirts as they don't irritate her skin. She use to have eczema all over her back, from the tags rubbing and causing magor irritation, we have been eczema free for 6 months with tagless shirts, maybe it's just the carters ones, as she really doesn't wear those ones that much.

Joel, Torrey and Abbey said...

Good to know but, we have never had a problem at all with Carters. Gap has tagless clothing as well, and I have never seen any issues. Abbey naturally has eczema just like I do, but has never had any rash on her back.

Alli said...

I wonder if you couldn't discreetly sew a little patch of fabric over the tagless tags? So your kids could still wear those clothes? Just a thought. It's what I'd do if my kids had issues.

Rachel said...

i thought about that alli. right now he has enough other clothes to wear (almost most with tagless tags not that specific season from carters). He had to wear one the other day and it didnt leave a worse rash so who knows.

BUT even if your child DOESNT have a reaction we should all still be very concerned because of what is in this plastic material they are using. What effect could formaldehyde and phylates have if your child is exposed to even a small dose, 24 hours a day, for years and years and years.

Im not advocating freaking out but I do think we have a right to speak up and let companies know its NOT OK WITH US TO DO THIS TO OUR CHILDREN. They need to find a safer way to make these tags or put the old tags back in IMO.

Rachel said...

p.s. I think i mentioned int he post that the line causing horrible rashes was Fall 2007? it was a much bigger/longer "tag" so that may be why.

E said...

Oh, yuck. Why can't they just think and be like, "Uh...let's find a better way to do this..."??? That's frustrating.

That being said, we've always loved Carter's clothes. I'm bummed that the tagless "tags" are made of icky stuff. Ugh. Everything is tagless these days...which is nice because my oldest finds the tags very irritating. But, that's easily solved...cut them off.

Janet said...

Thank you bringing this to light about Carters tagless clothes. Our ordeal with them continues with NO satisfactory resolution.

We created this blog (with pictures of our baby's affected back):

http://avastaglesshorrorwithcarters.blogspot.com/

Our daughter was only 6 weeks when her Carters tagless clothes began burning her back. We did not discover this was the cause until last month and she is now 6.5 months old! Our poor baby had been wearing Carters tagless clothes all along. She endured so much and Carters, even after we've explained our traumatic situation, refuses to recall these defective, hazardous baby clothes.

Thank you for helping us make this public!

Anonymous said...

MY SON HAS HAD A RASH/BLISTERY RED SPOT FOR OVER 2 MONTHS - WE WERE TOLD MAYBE EXZCEMA OR BUG BITE...THEY WERENT SURE EVEN AFTER NUMEROUS DR VISITS WE COULDNT DETERMINE EXACTLY WHAT IT WAS, WE NOW FEEL/KNOW ITS A CHEMICAL REACTION/BURN FROM THE CARTERS TAGLESS CLOTHES. IT BUBBLED ONE NIGHT THEN POPPED AND OOZED. IT DID HEAL AFTER NEOSPORIN...BUT I FELT HORRINLE FOR MY BABY BOY! AND WE STILL CANT CLEAR THE RED PATCH UP. I HAVE A TON OF ITEMS - SO FAR WE COUNTED 20+ BUT ITS NOT JUST THE FALL 2007 LINE ITS ALL OF IT, AT LEAST FOR MY SON ITS ALL TAGLESS. EITHER THAT OR THEY ARE AGGRAVATING THE CONDITION FRIN THE INITIAL SPOT! AND SADLY OLD NAVY, TARGET & GAP ARE USING THEM NOW TOO - WE CANT GET AWAY. (THE ONLY PLACE I CAN FIND THAT USES TAGS IS GYMBOREE & CRAZY 8) WE ARE HOPING THIS MARK OR NOW SCAR WILL FINALLY CLEAR UP AND HE WONT BE SCARRED FOR LIFE BY THEIR NEGLIGENCE. YES THEY ARE WILLING TO TAKE IT ALL BACK & REFUND - BUT BY DOING THAT THERE GOES YOUR EVIDENCE. A CLASS ACTION LAWSUIT MUST BE STARTED NOT EVEN FOR THE $$ BUT FOR THE FACT THEY WONT RECALL! AND THE FACT THEY ALLOW BABY CLOTHES TO BE MADE WITH THESE DANGEROUS CHEMICALS FULLY KNOWING WHAT COULD HAPPEN. THEY ONLY CARE ABOUT THE $$$! THERE ARE TONS OF BABIES OUT THERE REACTING IT BREAKS MY HEART! PLEASE CALL THE CPSC IF THEY GET ENOUGH CALLS THEY WILL BE FORCED TO RECALL! GOOD LUCK TO ALL, SPREAD THE WORD SO NO MORE BABIES GO THROUGH THIS. NMUSSNER@YAHOO.COM THANK U
NICOLE

AvasTaglessHorrorwithCarters said...

I just wanted everyone to know that NBC has picked up on this story. We were interviewed by them along with other families, so finally it is getting the publicity to inform other families and the pediatric community. Here are the video links to viewer reactions and the one where a CA Mom has joined a class action (we did not join, but wholeheartedly support this legal redress...it may be the only way Carters finally recalls these defective tagless clothes):

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Carters-tagless-clothing-investigation-reaction.html

http://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/Talk-of-lawsuit-over-baby-Clothes.html