assorted-color long-sleeved dresses

Federal Regulators Are Recalling Children’s Clothing Sold on Whatnot and a Small Boutique Website Because Long Drawstrings on the Garments Can Catch on Playground Equipment and Strangle a Child

About 590 pieces of children’s clothing sold on Whatnot and a small boutique website are being recalled because long drawstrings on the garments can catch on playground equipment or other objects and strangle a child, according to CPSC’s recall notice. Little Loves & Co. LLC, based in Olympia, Washington, sold the clothing from May 2025 through July 2026 for $15 to $30.

clothes hanged on clothes hanger
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

Key Points

  • The recall covers youth daywear sets (crew neck shirts paired with joggers) and boy short sets with short-sleeve shirts and shorts, in sizes ranging from 12/18 months up through youth 9/10, in various colors and collage-style prints, per CPSC.
  • “The drawstrings in the recalled clothing can get caught on objects and cause death or serious injury to children due to an entrapment hazard,” CPSC’s notice states.
  • No incidents or injuries have been reported so far.
  • Drawstrings at the neck or waist of children’s clothing are a well-known entrapment risk on playground slides, school bus doors, and even car doors, not just monkey bars or climbing equipment.
  • The garments were sold direct-to-consumer through the brand’s own site and through live-selling platform Whatnot, over more than a year, spanning multiple sizes that fit toddlers through school-age kids.

What Parents Should Do

  • Stop letting your child wear the recalled clothing immediately, especially around playground equipment, buses, or vehicles.
  • Contact Little Loves & Co. for a prepaid shipping label and a full refund once you return the item.
  • As an alternative to returning the garment, you can cut and remove the drawstring yourself and keep the clothing.
  • Reach the company at 206-659-8136 (Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Eastern), by email at [email protected], or through littlelovesandco.com/pages/recall.
  • Check any hand-me-downs or resale purchases in the affected size range for a drawstring at the neck or waist, since the clothing sold over more than a year and may already have passed between families.

Drawstrings on children’s clothing have been a recurring safety issue for long enough that CPSC maintains specific voluntary industry guidelines discouraging neck drawstrings on kids’ outerwear entirely and limiting waist drawstring length on younger sizes. A string that catches while a child is moving, sliding, running, stepping off a bus, can tighten around the neck in seconds, which is why the fix here isn’t a warning label but full removal of the string.

Because this recall spans a wide size range and two different sales channels, it’s worth checking every garment your child owns from this brand rather than assuming only one item is affected. If a drawstring is present at the neckline or waist of any Little Loves & Co. piece, treat it as recalled until you’ve confirmed it against CPSC’s product images.