About Toys
Well designed and constructed toys can provide hours of enjoyment and stimulation for your children. Poorly designed and cheaply made toys, however, can present serious hazards. When evaluating a toy for your child, use your common sense and powers of observation. Does the toy seem solid and well constructed? Are there small pieces that can break off and present choking or cutting hazards? Does the price seem too good to be true - if it is, you can be sure that cheap materials were used, and it is likely not well constructed.
This is an area where quality wins over quantity. It is better to have one well made toy that will last, instead of three or four cheaply made toys. Well meaning parents, grandparents and friends love to heap countless presents on a child. This can be overwhelming, and often many of the toys are never even played with. Many organizations, such as the ones linked to at left, recommend and rate toys. Not only are most of the recommended toys well made, but they also have been shown to be fun and stimulating for children.
Lastly, many people ignore instructions, labels and warnings - don't do so here. Also remember that your kids likely won't or can't read these materials - so it's imperative that you take the time to explain to your child how a toy is supposed to be used, and how it could dangerous.
Toys are an area where recalls happen almost constantly. Please check back with the Child Safety Blog for updates.
http://www.toysafety.org - general toy safety information, including list of worst toys
www.healthytoys.org - ratings of toys
www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/category/toy.html - list of recalls regarding toys
http://www.aap.org/publiced/br_toysafety.htm - more guidelines on toy safety
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An educated child is a safe child. Play Safetyville Board Game to help provide your child with the knowledge, skills and attitude necessary to make their own decisions about safe behavior when they are conforted with unsafe and uncomfortable situations.
For ages 3 and up.
www.kidzsafetynow.com
Thanks, Regina!
When buying toys for kids make sure it is safe because their life might be at risk if they will ingest hazardous chemicals from toys like lead.
Well said Regina!
We would rather pay the extra dollars for our products so we know they are the safest for all children.
http://jumpup.ca/
Interesting article. My kids are past this point now, but I spent so much time and money on little-kid toys over the years and was generally concerned with quantity over quality because I felt my 4 kids would get bored without a ton of variety. When we moved, I gave away about 80% of their toys and guess what - not one kid ever even noticed. If I could go back, I would definitely be more concerned with quality than quantity. I would also be a lot more concerned with safety and with how much a given toy provided for imaginative play. Just wait 'til I'm a Grandma!
I'd like to share my experience when I was looking after my nephews and niece about a couple of decades ago.
Aside from lead-coated dolls and action figures, plastic toy kitchenware and utensils and large playing marbles that can all easily harm, the commercially sold and unmonitored BB guns are the most dangerous. My eldest nephew took a hit from a 7mm BB slug near his right eye. A large welt ensued and their playmates were temporarily banned from our house. Their own parents got rid of the BB's to make sure.