7.5 Million Baby Shark Bath Toys Are Recalled Due to Impalement Risk

Zuru’s full-sized Robo Alive Junior Baby Shark Sing & Swim Bath Toy. Courtesy of Consumer Product Safety Commission

About 7.5 million Baby Shark bath toys are being recalled because the miniature shark’s plastic fin poses a serious injury risk to children.

Zuru, a California-based toymaker, is recalling 6.5 million Robo Alive Junior Baby Shark Sing & Swim bath toys and one million Junior Mini Robo Alive Junior Mini Baby Shark Swimming bath toys. Each toy has a hard plastic top fin with three grooves on one side.

“When using the recalled bath toys, particularly in a bathtub or wading pool, a child can slip and fall or sit onto the hard plastic top fin of the shark, posing risks of impalement, lacerations, and punctures,” the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) said in a June 22 notice.

Twelve injuries have already been reported with Zuru’s full-sized Robo Alive Junior Baby Shark Sing & Swim Bath Toy after children sat or fell on the now-recalled products, “resulting in impalement injuries, lacerations and puncture wounds, including to children’s genital, anorectal and facial areas. Nine of the incidents required stitches or medical attention,” according to the agency. No incidents or injuries involving the Mini Baby Shark bath toys have been reported.

This involves toys sold at Walmart, CVS Pharmacy, Dollar General Corp., Family Dollar Services, HEB Grocery Company, Meijer, Target, TJX Companies, Ross and Walgreens stores nationwide and online at Walmart, Target, Amazon, and other websites.

The full-size toys have tracking information on the bottom, including raised lettering with the model number ”#25282” and a date code beginning with the letters DG followed by “YYYY/MM/DD” in the date range DG20190501 through DG20220619.

The mini-size bath toys also have tracking labels on the bottom, including raised lettering with model numbers “#7163,” “#7175,” “#7166,” or “#25291” and a date code beginning with the letters DG followed by YYYY/MM/DD in the date range DG2020615 through DG2023525.

The larger toys were being sold from May 2019 through March 2023, while the mini version was available in packs of one to three from July 2020 to June 2023.

Consumers in possession of the recalled toys are instructed to stop using them immediately and contact Zuru for a full refund. To get the refund, customers are asked to cut off or bend the tail fin, write “recalled” and a registration code on the body of the baby shark, and upload a photo on a site dedicated to the recall.

Zuru is offering refunds as prepaid virtual Mastercards, $14 for the bigger bath toy and $6 for the smaller toy.

To reach Zuru by phone, call Zuru toll-free at 833-820-0839 from 8 a.m. to 7 p.m. ET Monday through Friday.

In a company announcement, Zuru noted that the recall only impacts the versions of the baby shark toys with a hard plastic fin. The newest toys, which have a silicone fin, are not part of the recall, Zuru said.

“We want to assure our customers that we are committed to the highest levels of safety and quality of all our products, and we have implemented measures to prevent future incidents by working to promptly remove these products from retail and replace them with a newly designed product,” Zuru wrote.