Help Kids Stay Safe for the Holidays

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As you’re considering gifts for your child or grandchild, you might want to think back to the favorite toys of your own childhood. They probably weren’t high-tech or high-priced. Your favorite toy may have been a baseball glove that led to hours of playing catch and fielding grounders with your dad in the back yard. It may have been a special board game that Mom could never seem to win. As we grow up and hopefully grow wiser, we realize that it’s not the toy itself that brought the joy, but the hours of interaction with our parents or other kids. While most children like to spend some time playing quietly by themselves - with a Game Boy or video game - they usually have more fun and benefit more when they are sharing quality time with others.

Staying Safe

Whether the child is playing on his own or with others, it’s the parent’s job is to provide a safe environment. Each year, more than 100,000 young children under age 14 require emergency room treatment for a toy-related injury. Most are not serious, but a few deaths occur each year because of toys that are inappropriate for a child’s age or because parents did not supervise the play closely enough.

The Public Interest Research Group has been publishing yearly surveys of toy safety for 19 years. While reporting that “toys are safer than ever,” the group continues to look for potentially hazardous products. Results can be found at PIRG’s web site, toysafety.net.

CHOKING: Manufacturers are now required by law to place a warning on the labels of toys that pose a choking hazard. Toys with such a warning should not be purchased for children under age three. If you have an older child as well as a toddler, you have to make sure the older child’s toys, especially ones with small pieces, are kept out of reach of the toddler.

Small is defined as less than one and one quarter inches diameter and two and one quarter inches in length - as a rule of thumb, anything that would fit inside a cardboard toilet paper tube.

STRANGULATION: It’s also important to avoid toys with loose string, rope, ribbons or cords that might present a strangulation hazard. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has received several hundred reports of injuries related to the use of yo-yo water balls.

LOUDNESS: Most parents worry about loud toys because of their own peace of mind, but anything that’s too loud for the parents is bound to present a danger to a child’s ears. Prolonged exposure to noise levels of 85 decibels or greater has been determined to damage an adult’s hearing. A child’s ears are certainly no less sensitive. In November of 2003, the American Society for Testing and Materials set the loudness threshold for handheld toys at 90 decibels, but several toys now on the shelves exceed 100 decibels when measured at close range.

OTHER HAZARDS: For any age child, projectile type toys carry a risk of eye injury. Even if the tip is made of foam rubber, make sure it’s firmly attached. Close parental supervision is required to ensure that projected objects are never aimed at another child’s face.

Battery-operated toys are generally safe, but plug-in toys require supervision and should never be given to a child younger than 8. Children should be taught to disconnect the toy by grasping the plug rather than by pulling on the cord.

Riding Safely

Riding toys account for numerous injuries every year but still make good gifts, particularly when they’re accompanied by parent/child interaction.

“We see a lot of injuries in children after Christmas related to the gifts they received,” said Dr. Seth Hawkins, Emergency Department Physician with Blue Ridge HealthCare.

“It’s amazing how many kids who have never ridden a scooter or bicycle will take off downhill as fast as they can go without knowing how to properly use the brakes,” he said. “It’s very important that bicycles, scooters, skate boards and in-line skates given as gifts should be accompanied by the proper protective equipment - helmet, knee pads, elbow or wrist pads - which, of course, should be worn at all times.

“Supervising a child’s play doesn’t have to mean being a security guard but rather staying involved enough to know what is happening in the child’s world and being available for support and protection.”

• For children under 3, avoid toys with small parts, which can cause choking.
• Select toys to suit the age, abilities, skills and interest level of the intended child.
• For children under 8, avoid toys with sharp edges and electric toys with heating parts.
• Look for labels with age and safety advice.
• Source: U.S. Consumer Produce Safety Commission

Unsafe Toys Make List

Though decades of effort have made toys safer, children still choke on balloons, gthe U.S. Public Interest Research Group warned in its annual toy safety survey.

The watchdog group’s 20th survey noted that the Consumer Product Safety Commission reported the deaths of 16 children in toy-related incidents last year, along with another 210,000 emergency room visits. Choking on small parts, balls and balloons remains a leading cause of death and injury in children younger than 15.

U.S. PIRG researchers say they found toys for sale that violated a federal ban on small parts in toys intended for children younger than 3. Others meant for children under 6 that included small parts lacked required warning labels.

The research group recommended parents use a choke testing tube or a cardboard toilet paper roll to test small toys and parts. If any toy or part fits in the tube, then it is too small for children under 3 or older children who still put things in their mouths.

The group also found that manufacturers continue to market latex balloons to children younger than 8, despite the choking risk. Children that young should never be given balloons to play with.

The report singled out yo-yo water balls as a potential strangulation hazard. The liquid-filled balls are attached to stretchy cords that can used to swing them overhead like a lasso. The group said their sale should be banned.

The U.S. PIRG group also recommended that shoppers avoid buying toys that seem too loud, since children can be even more sensitive to noise than adults.

Researchers said they found some noisemaking toys, including toy electric guitars, that appeared to exceed voluntary standards.

“A child’s hearing is so critical for development. Even partial hearing loss can result in an impaired ability to speak and acquire language,” said Alison Cassady, U.S. PIRG’s research director. The group recommends taping over the speakers of excessively loud toys or simply removing their batteries to protect a child’s hearing.

Testing revealed that some toys, pacifiers and other products labeled as “phthalate-free” actually contained the chemicals, which are used to soften plastics but are potentially hazardous. However, the chemicals aren’t present in sufficient quantities to pose a threat in some toys.

Toys sold in the United States are the most regulated and monitored in the world.

The second largest employer in Burke County, Blue Ridge HealthCare serves a four-county area and includes Grace and Valdese hospitals, Blue Ridge Home HealthCare, Grace Heights and College Pines Health & Rehabilitation Centers, Grace Ridge Retirement Community, Phifer Wellness Center and a number of physician practices.