Toy Chain Reverses Itself on Baby Prize

NEW YORK, Jan. 6 -- Toys 'R' Us Inc. agreed Saturday to award a Chinese American infant a $25,000 prize in a New Year's baby contest, days after the company disqualified the girl because her mother is not a legal U.S. resident.

Toys 'R' Us will also give $25,000 savings bonds to the two other babies in the grand-prize pool of the "First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes."

Infuriated Chinese American advocates had launched an e-mail campaign criticizing the company over the disqualification, drawing media attention in New York.

"We love all babies," the Wayne, N.J.-based company said in a statement. "We deeply regret that this sweepstakes became a point of controversy."

Yuki Lin was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital, according to hospital officials. She won a random drawing held to break a tie with two other babies entered in the contest, Toys 'R' Us spokeswoman Kathleen Waugh said.

Toys 'R' Us had said the prize would go to the first American baby born in 2007, but Waugh said eligibility rules required babies' mothers to be legal residents -- a requirement of many sweepstakes, she added.

The company initially awarded the grand prize to runner-up Jayden Swain, born 19 seconds after midnight at Northeast Georgia Medical Center in Gainesville, Ga., Waugh said, after the contest administrator was told that Yuki's mother "was not a legal resident of the United States."

Attempts to reach Yuki's father, Yan Zhu Liu, and mother, Han Lin, both 22, for comment were unsuccessful Saturday. Their immigration status was not clear.

Before the company reversed itself, Jayden's grandmother Janet Keller said that revisiting the result would be unfair.

"She was disqualified. That should be it," Keller said. "Don't go changing your mind now."

The third baby receiving a savings bond was born in Bay Shore, N.Y., to a couple from El Salvador.