The children’s care company Huggies is responding to some complaints by parents that their popular baby wipes contain shards of glass or fiberglass.
Within hours of the first complaints appearing on its Facebook page, the company issued a statement:
Hello Huggies Parents,
As some of you may have heard, a concern about our wipes was raised recently on Facebook. We take any concerns about our products very seriously and we are working directly with this parent to learn more about what happened and how we can help. Nothing is more important than the safety of the little ones who use our products.
Families put their trust in Huggies wipes every day, and all of our Huggies products have been thoroughly evaluated to ensure they are safe. In addition, we have stringent quality controls in place, and no glass is used during the manufacture of our wipes. As parents ourselves, we know you may have additional questions or concerns. Please don’t hesitate to contact us at http://bit.ly/8ZuAUH or by phone at 1-888-485-6839.
A mother in Guam was the first to report the problem and made a video that looks pretty convincing:
A mother in Denver also reported glass in her Huggies wipes.
Several other parents also reported the problem so it doesn’t seem to be an isolated incident:
The post was met with more complaints by parents questioning why their babies have rashes since using the wipes.
“We need to check Paisley’s wipes!!” one mother wrote. “That explains the little cuts we’ve been getting and the red rash she has in her diaper area!”
“I found them in my sons wipes as well!” wrote another. “I went to use one to take my makeup off and could feel it scratching my face. Threw the whole pack away.”
“No wonder why my son always crying and avoiding to change the diapers and the rash ….no more Huggies,” wrote another.
Without proof, it’s hard to discover if any of these parents’ claims are true. That last comment is especially dubious, given that babies cry for many reasons and just because the infant has diaper rash doesn’t mean he got it from Huggies wipes.
But there is enough smoke to guarantee a fire unless Huggies can be more convincing. Product tampering is a possibility, as is employee sabotage. There’s even a possibility of parents seeding the wipes with glass shards in order to get a big payday from Huggies.
As a lesson in crisis management, Huggies has so far acted responsibly. But this is the sort of thing that can snowball very quickly unless Huggies can convince parents of the safety of their products.
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