This holiday season, toy safety can keep your season peaceful.
Toys are meant to bring joy, fun, and a good learning experience. However, some come with a risk of injury, and that’s important to remember when shopping this year.
Before you begin loading your cart, take a few minutes to read the labels and double-check the appropriate age ranges for the toys you are buying.
With safety in mind, you can give and receive gifts this year that keep your family happy and healthy. If your child does have an incident with an unsafe toy, don’t hesitate to take them to the Emergency Department and call your pediatrician.
Here are five tips:
1. Check safety reports before you shop
In addition to monitoring toy safety, reporting agencies also document instances of harm caused by certain toys. Reviewing these data-driven facts can help keep children safe. For example, Saferproducts.gov, overseen by the Consumer Product Safety Commission, is a great resource for researching toys or reporting unsafe products. The database provides information about past issues that have been reported by others and provides an opportunity for users to share their own issues.
Always read the label to make sure the toy is UL (Underwriter Laboratories), Certified and nontoxic. UL is a reliable safety organization that sets industry-wide standards for new products.
Another great resource for anyone looking to do more research is the American Academy of Pediatrics Parenting website, available in English and Spanish, offers accessibility features for users.
2. Add safety to your cart
Whenever gifting items like sports equipment or science kits, consider whether safety enhancements should also be included. Eye protection, helmets, knee pads, and other products can help make supervision easier, keeping both child and adult happy and safe.
Additionally, limit the gifting of extremely noisy toys. Over time, blaring sounds can damage hearing when played too loudly.
3. Be careful with batteries and magnets
Round lithium “button” batteries and magnets pose a BIG risk when swallowed. Not only are they choking hazards, but they also cause quick and severe burns to the mouth, throat, stomach tract, or whatever internal body part they meet. The wet lining in our bodies activates the current inside these batteries and life-threatening burns can occur in as little as two hours.
If you suspect your child swallowed a battery or magnet, or your child is drooling or coughing, take them to the emergency department (ED) immediately so the battery or magnet can be removed. Do not try to make your child vomit and do not wait for your child to pass the object naturally into stool. This is a time-dependent emergency.
Regardless of how old your children are, adults should always be responsible for safely storing batteries and changing them out of toys.
4. Use the “Toilet Paper Tube Rule”
For children who tend to put items in their mouths, we recommend following the “toilet paper tube rule.” If a toy can fit down the cardboard tube of a toilet paper roll, it can also block a young child’s airway. It’s best to keep these small toys away from young children.
5. Children of different ages
If you have older children who use toys with batteries, magnets, sharp edges, or strings that can cause strangulation, we encourage you to have a conversation with them about safety. Teach them to store their toys in a safe space, away from small hands, and to alert you in case younger children find their toys.
Supervision is key so that older children can safely enjoy their toys without posing a risk to younger children.
Imagination is the best gift
Don’t discount toys that allow kids to engage different parts of their brains. Soft toys, plushies, board games, books or any toys that encourage kids to think and use their surroundings are wonderful gifts.
With safety first and foremost on your shopping list, you and the children in your life are bound to have a happy holiday season.