Are bumbo seats unsafe or just being misused?

If you havent heard about the Bumbo seat recall, you can read the full article about it here. The short version is that these seats have been voluntarily recalled as of August 15th 2012 due to babies sustaining injuries as a result of falling out of the seat primarily from elevated surfaces or sufaces of "unknown elevation" as well as from the ground.

For those that don't know, a bumbo is an infant seat designed for babies who are not yet able to sit up by themselves. The inside of the seat is shaped in such a way that it pushes the baby into a sitting position and the high back of the chair keeps them upright. This seat is very useful because it gives the baby a break from constantly lying down and is much more productive than propping pillows around the baby in an effort to train them on how to sit down. It is also a great prop for taking pictures of your little one. We have a bumbo at home, I love it, baby loves it... its a hit!  Now to the topic at hand, the recall...
The interesting thing about the recall is how some of the babies fell from the bumbo from an unknown elevation. Umm excuse me but as a parent how can you not know the elevation of your bumbo when your baby fell out of it. It was either on the floor or not. I suppose they reported it as unknown because they didnt want to admit that they had misused the product by placing it on a table.
To be honest this is just one of those common sense issues, babies shouldn't be left unattended in a product like this, and it shouldnt be placed on a dining table or kitchen counter as a replacement for a high chair.  But these days common sense is not so common and for that reason a new bigger warning label is being shipped out with the repair kit which includes a safety harness to keep babies buckled in place.. Below is a photo of the bumbo with the new repair kit restraints attached. To request a repair kit visit their recall site http://www.recall.bumbousa.com/

Source

One thing I will say against Bumbo is that the old warnings on the bumbo were just printed in ink on  the back of the seat and the ink fades away with time, so for those parents who may have bought a used seat, they may have been unable to read the warning.

The bumbo retails at $40 which is pretty expensive for an infant chair that is only useful for a very short while. If you can borrow one or buy one used then definitely go that route since they are easy to clean and disinfect. There are accessories for it such as the play tray and fabric covers shown below.