Recalls Plus {The Must Have Smartphone App For Parents}

With everything I do in a day, staying up to date with recalls is not one of them. I learn about the largest recalls through social media or parenting websites but I don’t hear about every single product that is recalled. I honestly didn’t realize how big of a mistake this was until I reviewed the Recalls Plus smartphone app.

Information about the application:

Recalls Plus is a newly launched app that helps busy parents to proactively monitor recalls on their kids’ strollers, cribs, toys, formula, and other items for greater safety and peace of mind. Our diverse team consists of parents and others who are focused and passionate about parenting issues — working around the clock to make sure we don’t miss catching a recall on kid’s products or food with undeclared allergens. Recalls Plus is designed and built for busy parents like you so you can focus on the important things in your life.

My thoughts:

I found the application pretty easy to use. I first had to sign up for an account. I could do this by creating an account with Recalls Plus or signing in with my Facebook or Twitter account. Once signed in I had 4 options. I could read news of the newest updates, check my inbox, add stuff, or check my watchlist of items I had added.

Curious as to how many items really get recalled, I checked the “news” section out first. I was shocked to see 14 recalls just last week! The reasons that the items had been recalled were varied and ranged from allergens not being properly marked to choking hazards to a pool slide that had caused a mom’s death {when she was properly using it}. I couldn’t believe how many recalls were due to allergens not being marked properly because that could have been a deadly mistake. If I was a parent of a child who had severe food allergies I would be checking these recalls daily because apparently reading labels is not enough.

The next thing I wanted to do was add items that I had in my home. I really liked that I had the option to choose to add individual items but that there was also a category checklist so I could choose to be notified of any recall in specific categories, such as all strollers, toddler beds, or riding toys. I chose to add “all strollers” and “all riding toys” to my watchlist because I have multiple of each and it saved me time of having to go add each individual one. After that I added some individual items. There was also an easy food allergen recall watch list so that you can add your child’s allergens and be alerted to any recall relating to those allergens.

The only thing I wish was different about this app is that I wish it was easier to find individual items. Some brands I looked for could not be found since it’s a new app and they are still adding brands I’m sure. I also wish that when I entered a brand the app would bring up a list of all items made by that brand. A lot of times I have multiple items from the same brand so it would be easier to find them all at once instead of going through the process over and over again for the same brands. The app has you name the brand, then the category {which was hard because I wasn’t sure what my choices were}, and then the product. You also have the option of adding in how much you purchased it for and when you purchased it. I added some items but then worried that maybe I had added in the product names incorrectly and wondered that if something wasn’t completely correct if I would get the notice or not. I would have preferred to have a list of product names to choose from.

Overall, I think the Recalls Plus application is a must download for parents. It is free and even if you just use it for the “news” section it’s worth it. I will probably use it most to follow the categories of items my children use. As I said before, I would also use it if my children had allergies. With just a few minor changes to finding individual products this application would be made even better than it already is.

(Disclosure: I was compensated for this post but all thoughts are my own.)