How we classify recalls

The CPSC's public API provides rich recall records — title, description, products, hazards, remedies, photos, UPCs — but no structure aimed at parents. No "this is a children's product" flag, no age range, no severity scale. We add that layer, and this page explains exactly how.

Source data

Everything starts from the CPSC Recall Retrieval API (saferproducts.gov). We sync the last 45 days every hour, re-sync the last two years daily to catch edits, and hold the full archive back to 1973. Raw payloads are archived unmodified.

Children's relevance

A recall is tagged as children's-relevant when its text names a child audience (infant, toddler, youth…) or matches any of our children's product categories. We deliberately lean inclusive: a false positive costs you a skim; a false negative could cost much more.

Categories and age stages

Eight categories (sleep & nursery, feeding, car seats & travel, toys & play, clothing, furniture, gear & electronics, bath & outdoors) and five age stages (newborn, infant, toddler, preschool, big kid) are assigned by transparent keyword rules over the recall text. A recall can carry several of each.

Severity

Severity is our reading of the hazard text, not a CPSC rating:

• Critical — deaths reported, or suffocation/asphyxiation hazards.
• High risk — strangulation, entrapment, choking, drowning, button batteries, magnets, lead.
• Moderate — burns, fire, lacerations, falls, tip-overs, impact injuries.
• Notice — everything else (labeling violations, standard violations without a stated injury mechanism).

When in doubt, read the official notice — every page links to it.

Matching your nursery

Nursery items match by UPC first (exact digit match against the recall's published UPCs), then by brand plus model/name tokens. Watches match by category tag, by brand tokens, or by keyword. Child profiles match when a recall's age stages include the child's current stage, computed from the birth month you give us.

Corrections

Spot a misclassified recall? Email alerts@parentrecallwatch.com with the recall number and we'll fix the rule, not just the row.