Consumer Reports has issued a "Don't Buy: Safety Risk" warning on the Orbit Infant System, a popular convertible car seat. Orbit disagrees.



Tests were conducted on the Orbit Infant System and two similar products, the Graco Stylus and Eddie Bauer Adventurer, according to a press release issued by Consumer Reports. The Orbit separated from its base in two out of six tests and the other two products did not separate at all. Consumer Reports points out that when the car seat was tested without the base, there were no problems.

Orbit Baby has issued a response stating that it conducted its own tests at the same independent lab that Consumer Reports used, and that the company stands by its product. Orbit went further, saying that they were "very concerned that Consumer Reports did not follow our product instructions when they conducted their testing."

In an interview with ParentDish, David Champion, Deputy Technical Director for Automotive Products at Consumers Union (the non-profit that publishes Consumer Reports), said that Orbit's claim is "untrue."

"We followed the instruction manuals [and] the protocols exactly to the letter," he told us. When Consumers Union shared their test results with Orbit, Orbit did its own tests in the same lab with the same testing dummy, but, "they ran five of their eight tests with the belt installed in the middle position for the biggest baby you can put in there, which doesn't make sense to us."

Why not?

"In the instructions, they say that the belt should be at or slightly below a child's shoulders," Champion said. After seeing the test results from Consumer Reports, "they're suggesting that the seat belt should be in the middle position, which is not what their documentation says. We followed their instructions to the letter. But they didn't."

Responding to Champion, Joseph Hei, CEO and co-founder of Orbit Baby, issued the following statement to ParentDish via email:

"We respectfully disagree with Consumer [sic] Union's statement that they followed Orbit Baby's instruction manual. Orbit Baby's technical experts are confident that Consumer [sic] Union's positioning of the shoulder harness at the top slot does not reflect compliance with Orbit Baby's safety instructions, which state that the harness needs to be at or just below the infant's shoulders. In fact, the same testing laboratory used by Consumers Union has repeatedly endorsed the middle slot as the correct slot for Orbit Baby's federal compliance testing. Moreover, Consumer Reports failed to engage Orbit Baby's StrongArm mechanism as directed in the installation instructions. Lastly, even in the video posted on their website on this issue, Consumer Reports mistakenly tell [sic] parents to use the Infant Car Seat off the Base with only one Belt Clip engaged. Our manual clearly calls for using both Belt Clips, and their recommendation represents a safety risk. We are extremely disappointed that Consumers Union chose to provide this misleading testing information, and mistaken usage recommendations, to our consumers."

Mr. Champion reiterated in a follow-up interview that Consumers Union followed Orbit Baby's manual "to the letter" and that Hei's statement regarding the endorsemnt of the middle slot is "incorrect."

Champion also pointed out that, "we had an independent expert look at all of our data," and that expert approved of Consumers Union's methods.

It is important to note that this is not a recall.

"Consumer Reports does not issue recalls. We do tests of products to check how well they perform," said Lauren Hackett, spokesperson for Consumer Reports. "In this case we found a safety risk and we wanted to let consumers know what we found."

Bottom line: Orbit Baby may not be happy with the results, but Consumer Reports stands by their methods.

The Orbit Infant System is a high-end product that sells for $900. It has received praise from celebrities like Tori Spelling, who called the product "the best thing since sliced bread," according to a quote on its testimonials page, as well as Jessica Alba, who was photographed with her child in an Orbit Infant System stroller.

Here is a link to the initial statement from Orbit, which includes a phone number that consumers can call with any concerns. That number is 1-877-672-2229.

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Jessica Alba recently came clean about what it really felt like to be pregnant. The sexy Latina star, known for vamping it up in such films as Sin City and the recent The Love Guru, said that she loved being pregnant and wouldn't trade the experience for the world, but that it left her feeling less than desirable in the hotness department.

Unlike Catherine Zeta Jones, who claimed she never felt sexier than when she was pregnant, it seems like Alba just felt fat. Says the star, "I wanted to get rid of all that weight." Alba recently became mom to Honor Marie (as well as Mrs. Cash Warren).

Many women feel gorgeous rather than gross during their pregnancies. Others feel blobby, but only post-partum. What about you? Did you bask in the glorious glow of impending motherhood or did you feel less sexy than ever?

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Jessica Alba and husband Cash Warren are settling in to life as parents to new bundle of joy Honor Marie. But Alba's costars say that she will be a strict mom.

Romany Malco, who costars with Alba in The Love Guru, told the press, "The baby isn't getting away with nothing." Alba's stunt double for the film, Taryn Dakha, agreed: "She'll be a tough mom but she's a phenomenal mother."

Alba, 27, seems comfortable with the "strict mom" label; she told Fit Pregnancy magazine, "I don't want to be my child's best friend. I want to be a mom. But I do want my child to come to me when they have problems and need to talk, so it's going to be about treading that line."

We hear so many stories about celebrity kids -- and parents -- behaving badly; it's nice to hear a celebrity mom who sounds like she's taking her responsibilities as a parent seriously.

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Ever since the whole Brangelina escapade, wherein it was claimed she gave birth to her twins but, in fact, did not, in what is now being referred to as Brangelina-gate (at least by me), I'm not sure whether or not to believe the latest headlines. According to reports, actress Jessica Alba has given birth.

The Sin City star and her new husband Cash Warren welcomed a baby girl into the world yesterday in Los Angeles. The baby, named Honor Marie is the first for both. Us Weekly is promoting the story.

Alba and Warren have had a busy six months planning for their new arrival--they secretly got married without even inviting close friends and relatives and moved into a $4 million house. Alba recently made headlines for claiming no money offers had come rolling in for pictures of the new baby and that she has no plans to cash in.

Congratulations to Jessica on the birth of little Honor Marie!

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I don't know about you, but I find it quite charming that the heavily pregnant-YET-still-way-hotter-than-me actress Jessica Alba quietly up and married her fiance Cash Warren at the Beverly Hills courthouse on Monday. (Maybe it's because I got married in a courthouse on a Monday, but in spite of local gossip, I was not pregnant!)

According to PEOPLE magazine, Alba wore a long blue dress with her hair pulled back in a simple ponytail while Warren topped off his brown slacks with a white shire. The ceremony was extremely private and 100% paparazzi-free as no one but the couple attended.

And just days earlier, rumored-to-be-pregnant Ashlee Simpson married Peter Wentz.

If only Brad and Angelina officially tied the knot, we could declare pregnant brides the next big Hollywood trend!

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In the soon-to-be released book If I'd Known Then: Women Under 35 Write Letters to Their Younger Selves women were asked to write letters to the girls they once were. An exercise in 'if I knew then what I know now', these women share hard-earned bits of wisdom with the young women of today.

One of the contributors is actress Jessica Alba. She wants young girls to know that "boys are awful" and are "nothing but hormones until they're 20 or 21." She also implores young girls to keep things in perspective when it comes to the opposite sex. "It's fun to have a crush, but don't think it's forever...And use birth control and condoms please." Despite the fact that 26-year-old Alba is unmarried and apparently unintentionally pregnant, it's good advice.

If I could send a letter back in time, I would try to convince myself to slow down and not be in such a hurry to grow up. Childhood is fleeting, but adulthood and all its responsibility lasts forever.

Imagine you had the opportunity to talk to your younger self. What would you say?

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Not only is the internet awash with either new or gestating babies as Kristin noted earlier, Hollywood is also brimming with bonnets and booties and yet another celebrity is said to be expecting a pair of babes instead of a singleton.

Jessica Alba might be gearing up to be the newest member of the Famous Mothers with Twins club that so far includes: Julia Roberts, Marcia Cross, possibly Angelina Jolie, and Jennifer Lopez who should be having her babies ...................at any moment now.

According to a friend, "Knowing that she's going to have twins has turned Jessica's life upside down. She and (fiance) Cash have had to scrap plans for a one-baby nursery and start all over again." The friend also said the couple avoided finding out the sex of their babies so far and slipped out a due date: June 8th.

Twins always sounded like so much fun. Two babies! Double the cuteness and joy! And then there was that fateful trip when that I drove my pregnant self to the lakeside cottage of a girlfriend who had just had a pair of babies. I quickly learned that newborn twins means one of them needs something at all times.

I'm not exaggerating when I say my friend was nursing nearly the entire time I was there, while the rest of us (her husband, her mother-in-law, and me) took turns holding, diapering, walking, burping, cleaning and redressing the other baby until it was obvious THEY wanted to eat too.

I left the cottage earlier than originally planned due to complete exhaustion, rubbing my one-inhabitant-only belly in gratitude all the way home. Mothers of multiples amaze me.

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I just finished catching up on my gossip rag reading, and I must say, it wasn't very satisfying.

Celebrities are having babies left and right and mags are documenting it like it's groundbreaking news and, yeah, I know most of you say you hate reading about the godforsaken celebrity parenting debauchery -- but millions are in fact fascinated with the minutae of JLo's nursery and Halle's preggo belly. If not, the gossip mags would quit writing about them, already. I admit: I am a secret gossip monger, and don't have a problem reading about how much pregnancy weight Tori has lost, or how much post-partum depression Brooke struggled with. What I do mind is the near-continuous "All is roses! Love, love, pregnancy!" vibe that every pregnant star seems to perpetuate.

Halle Barry says she would like to be pregnant forever. Jessica Alba says pregnancy is awesome. Can't one celebrity just admit that pregnancy sucked for her? That she felt bloated, and unattractive, weepy and cantankerous?

I remember when I was well into my second trimester, when my belly button popped out and a colleague popped into my office and congratulated me on my pregnancy, chortling heartily: "All this time, I just thought you were letting yourself go!" I held it together while he was in my office, but then hormonal, crappy, pregnant tears started drooling down my face.

Well, I had felt that way. My jeans chafed my belly button. I felt less respected as a competent career women, because my breasts were enormous and in the way and who the hell could take me seriously, as an intelligent company resource. when I had a pink bow dangling off the front of my sweater (incidentally: What is with the bows, maternity industry? What is with all the bows?) I felt truly unattractive, my skin broke out, and my butt became middle-aged overnight. I can say without hestitating that I was miserable for about 92% of my pregnancy.

What I wish is that a movie star would take the time during one of those all-important interviews to say: "Pregnancy sucked big time, I picked fights with my partner and sat in the bathroom and ate secret ice cream constantly. I wondered if I made an enormous mistake and felt some mornings I had." She'd be free to sum it up with an assurance that it's all worth it (because mind-bogglingly, it is), but I just yearn for a little bit of honesty. I was flummoxed that I didn't love pregnancy, partially because most women I knew celebrated it as a time of Glowing and All That Is Lovely. And I know it is, for many. But I also know it can suck big-time in pockets, and I wish that was acknowledged a little more by those in the mainstream media.

This whole "all is bliss" insistence reminds me of celebrities who declare that they eat french fries and gravy and donuts every day and weigh 97 pounds with no cellulite. If they just admitted the binged and purged and ate a piece of tofu every other day, wouldn't they have millions more fans?

Recently a friend's husband relayed an interesting story to me about mothers. His mother had commented to his wife, whose beautiful baby just turned a year old, that she didn't "look" like a mother. The couple assumed the mother (-in-law) was referring to the facts that the new mom was basically back to her pre-baby size and was wearing professional-looking clothes.

Back in the MIL's day women didn't necessarily work outside of the home once they became moms. They didn't necessarily work out or visit a gym or know how to pronounce "Pilate's." And, until quite recently, a lot of them wore MOM JEANS.

I have a sign on my fridge door--well, actually it's an ad from a magazine--that has a picture of a woman's backside on it. She's wearing the worst mom jeans imaginable, and the phrase on it says, "No mom jeans." This was additional motivation for me to hit the pavement and try to lose all that baby weight.

Clearly what the wife and the MIL have different ideas about what a mother looks like. Me? I couldn't tell you. I can comment on what I look like, or what I think I look like, now that I am a mom. I can sort of talk about what my friends who are my age who have babies look like. They look like me, and the wife in the story above.

But what does a mother look like? Truth be told, I don't think it's possible to define. Motherhood looks different on everyone, but I can assure you it's quite flattering. Generally. Except for the mom jean thing. And I know those are super comfy. And I know high-waisted jeans are coming back in style. But I just can't go there.

Perhaps there's a post in there somewhere about mom jeans. But for now, let us all ponder exactly what a mother looks like.

Twenty years ago, it seems that women in Hollywood were putting off having children as long as possible. Big stars like Madonna and Susan Sarandon were nearly 40-years-old before they had their first child. Motherhood and a Hollywood career didn't really seem to go together. But today, young Hollywood women seem to have decided that they can have it all - a successful career and a family.

While Demi Moore can probably be credited with changing the way we look at pregnant women with her sexy 2006 Harper's Bazaar cover, I think it was Reese Witherspoon who proved that motherhood need not hinder a Hollywood career. When her career was just beginning to heat up, she married and became a mother at the age of 23. She then went on to win an Oscar for her performance in Walk the Line.

"I think it's pro feminist," said E! online gossip columnist Ted Casablanca. "It's all about choice. It's taking the old mold and breaking it. It's saying, 'I will not be defined by my womb.' It's saying, 'I can have a dynamic career and be a dynamic mom at the same time,' rather than saying, 'I have to choose between the two.'"

Since then, more and more women in Hollywood are becoming mothers while still in their 20's. In the case of 26-year-old Christina Aguilera, being pregnant has actually helped her image. The former 'dirty' girl is now the angelic mother-to-be and her bad press has all but disappeared. But others, like newly pregnant 26-year-old Jessica Alba, don't need the image boost that seems to follow a pregnancy announcement. Will she still be considered sexy when she's a mother?

Village Voice gossip columnist Michael Musto thinks so. "The public has gone beyond the Madonna-whore syndrome, where once somebody has given birth, they're not considered sexy anymore," he says. "People are now more willing to embrace the idea of literally a hot mama. And that's what I think she'll be."

Who's the sexiest celebrity mom?

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Remember that total jerk from the 2nd grade who pushed you around and called you names? I do. Man, I hated that guy. I used to spend hours dreaming of the day when I'd be big, famous and important and I could finally say to him -- "Ha! I'm awesome, and you suck!"

Sound familiar?

Unfortunately, most of us never get the chance to do that, and have to convince ourselves that we're "over it," because we're "grown-ups." But obviously some people do get famous, and some of them -- believe it or not -- were not the most well-liked or attractive people when they were children. These celebrities are in a unique position to offer a little payback to those little jerks that made grade school a living hell.

Take Jessica Alba, for instance. Not only was she recently discovered to have the "world's sexiest wiggle" by a group of Cambridge mathematicians, the actress was also voted "female hottie" at Sunday's Teen Choice awards. In her acceptance speech, she revealed to the crowd that "I was pigeon-toed, had a sway back, was slightly cross-eyed, buck-toothed, I sucked my thumb." Alba then dedicated her award to Ross, a boy she had a crush on in grade school, but who didn't love her in return. "Look at me now, Ross," she shouted to the crowd, "Look at me now!"

I bet that guy is kicking himself really hard.

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