With recent crib and toy recalls, Consuming Interests blogger and reporter Liz Kay offers a great tip:

Here’s a task that new parents should tackle after the baby shower but before the thank you notes: Filling out product registration cards.

Once an opportunity for companies to glean marketing information from consumers, product registration cards now a means for manufacturers to promptly and directly notify families and caregivers about recalls. Under new federal law, the registration cards must be included with many infant and toddler nursery items constructed after June 2010.

Check out the rest of her post about the 2008 Consumer Products Safety Improvement law, which also requires the creation of mandatory standards for many durable infant and toddler products.