Cosco Jump, Spin & Play Activity Centers Recalled Due to Fall and Injury Risk

Consumer Reports had previously called for Cosco to stop selling these products

Consumer Reports Investigative Reporter, Lauren Kirchner.

By Lauren Kirchner
Investigative Reporter

October 26, 2023

Cosco Kids JUMP, SPIN & PLAY ACTIVITY CENTER — A Cosco Jump, Spin & Play Activity Center

The Cosco Jump, Spin & Play Activity Center has been recalled, after its parent company Dorel Juvenile received 141 reports of the straps detaching or breaking, including 38 minor injuries like bumps, bruises, and scratches. The recall notice instructs anyone who has bought one to stop using it immediately, cut the straps to make it unusable, and contact the company for a free replacement activity center.

The recall includes about 115,700 activity centers that were sold at Walmart stores and through Walmart.com. They come in blue and pink versions and can be identified by their model numbers, WA105FZW and WA105GML.

This June, safety experts at Consumer Reports called for a recall of this activity center, after analyzing numerous, harrowing reports from parents and caregivers of babies falling out of them and getting hurt when the support straps suddenly snapped or became detached. As early as January 2021, dozens of angry, negative reviews had started to appear on both the Cosco product website and on Walmart.com.

The activity center’s seat is suspended from a plastic frame by three straps attached by hooks. Over 30 reviews CR found at the time said that one or more of these straps had suddenly torn in two, causing the seat to dangle sideways or fall. About 20 other reviews mentioned that one or more of the straps had come completely unhooked from the frame structure. There were several head injuries mentioned throughout the reviews, though none of the injuries described sounded life-threatening.

“I’d give this product 0 stars if I could,” Madeleine from Maryville, Tenn., wrote on the Cosco website. “[N]ot one but TWO of the cables snapped while my son was bouncing in this. Even with me standing there, with two cables snapping, he fell quicker than I could get him, causing him to hit his head on the floor.”

In addition to the negative product reviews, there were also four incident reports that customers had submitted to the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s SaferProducts.gov database.

“Baby was using bouncer . . . one of the straps snapped causing the bouncer to drop suddenly on one side,” read one report of a March 2023 incident involving a 10-month-old boy. “This caused baby to fall and strike his head. He was also dangling upside down stuck in the seat due to its extreme angle.”

Consumer Reports safety experts called for a recall and alerted the CPSC to these findings. At the time, a CPSC representative said that the agency was “looking into it.”

Dorel Juvenile, Cosco’s parent company, did not comment for Consumer Reports’ initial story on the product’s hazards in June. When we included it in a list of 5 dangerous children’s products parents should avoid in August, Dorel’s media representative Rick Leckner told CR that the company “takes all matters concerning safety very seriously” and that the company had been in touch with the CPSC.

Cosco makes other versions of the activity center that are not affected by this recall. One has the model number WA105HCM and an additional black support strap on it. (More details and photos of the different versions can be found on the Cosco Kids recall page.) And the company is offering a similar product, made by Safety 1st, another Dorel Juvenile brand, as a replacement for the recalled product.

In response to questions on Thursday, Leckner said that Walmart has already pulled the defective versions from the shelves. When asked about the delay in issuing this recall, he said that the company has been working closely with the CPSC on this and “followed their lead.”

“We urge Dorel and Walmart—and every baby product manufacturer or seller—to be much faster and more proactive in responding to their customers’ safety complaints,” says William Wallace, CR’s associate director of safety policy. “In the case of these activity centers, it took more than two years and more than a hundred reports before Dorel recalled the products. Companies simply must do better than this. People should be able to trust that baby products are safe when they buy them, and that companies will take action quickly if there ends up being a safety issue.”

Recall Details

Product recalled: Both blue and pink versions of the Cosco Jump, Spin & Play Activity Centers, with model numbers WA105FZW and WA105GML. Activity centers with the model number WA105HCM are not affected by this recall; this version has an additional black safety strap attached.

Sold at: Walmart stores nationwide and online at Walmart.com, from November 2020 through October 2023, for about $70.

The problem: The activity center’s straps can detach or break while a child is in it, posing fall and injury hazards to the child.

The fix: If you have this activity center at home, you should immediately stop using it and contact Cosco Kids to initiate the recall process. You will be asked to cut its straps to make it unusable and provide proof of this to the company. You will then receive a free replacement activity center made by Safety 1st, another Dorel Juvenile brand.

How to contact the manufacturer: Go to the Cosco Kids recall page and complete the registration form. You can also call the company at 877-657-9546 for more information.

To report a dangerous product or a product-related injury, go to SaferProducts.gov.

Lauren Kirchner

Lauren Kirchner is an investigative reporter on the special projects team at Consumer Reports. She has been with CR since 2022, covering product safety. She has previously reported on algorithmic bias, criminal justice, and housing for the Markup and ProPublica, and was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize in Explanatory Reporting in 2017. Send her tips at lauren.kirchner@consumer.org and follow her on X: @lkirchner.