Beanbag Victim's Family Still Coping With Loss
NORTH TEXAS (CBSDFW.COM) - More than 2 million beanbag chairs, which lead to the suffocation deaths of at least two children, including a 13-year-old boy from McKinney, were recalled.
The chairs are made by Ace Bayou Corp. and do not meet industry standards. Ian Welton's family had a chair made by the company, and nearly three years after his death, they are still coping.
Welton's parents want to warn others that what happened to their child could happen to anyone's.
"I think the recall is a really good start. I don't think they should make them so they can open," said Ian's mother, Rebecca Bisson.
She said she believes Ian may have been playing a game of hide-and-seek when he fell asleep inside his favorite beanbag chair.
"He was amazing and in one freak crazy tragic accident he's gone," said Bisson.
The family's beanbag chair was one of several types that have zippers to replace stuffing. According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, this allows children to crawl inside of the chairs. If a child were to get stuck inside of a beanbag chair, they could suffocate or choke on the chair's foam beads… just like Ian did. Standards indicate that all beanbag chairs remain closed, and any zippers be disabled.
Ian's mother admits she's now on a mission to get manufacturers to remove the zippers from the popular chairs.
"I've walked through Walmart and seen families buying beanbags as they check out and walked up to them and said you need to make sure they can't open this," said Bisson.
A 3-year-old girl from Kentucky was also found dead inside one of the beanbag chairs.
The chairs were sold prior to July 2013 at several retailers such as Walmart and Amazon. They retailed for prices between $30 and $100 and came in a variety of colors and sizes. Beanbag chairs made by Ace Bayou Corp. have a tag with the company name sewn into the chair's seam. The chairs were made in China.
Anyone with one of these beanbag chairs is urged to keep them away from children and contact Ace Bayou Corp. immediately. The company is able to provide customers with a free kit that will permanently disable the zippers.
Click here to get more information about the recall, including how to check if your beanbag chair is being recalled and how to contact the company for your free safety kit.
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