Birthday party gifts: shopping for safer toys
By Heather
by Heather
I always appreciate gifts from friends and family, but I have to be a gatekeeper to make sure we only keep safe toys.
For example, Uncle Phil probably enjoyed giving Holden the remote control forklift a few years ago, and I know Holden liked receiving it. Unfortunately, the toy was much too sophisticated for my small boys – and therefore, quite frustrating. When the antenna broke off into a jagged weapon, we had to confiscate it.
This may be obvious to parents of small children, but often our friends and relatives need a little more help. This month is Holden’s fourth birthday. In order to better steer our loved ones’ gift buying efforts, I have compiled these five easy tips for buying appropriate and safe children’s toys.
Here’s a list of safety tips to pass along to friends and relatives before they spend money on your kid:
- Read the label for age-range. Should this go without saying? It doesn’t. Nearly every toy or game provides the recommended age range on the box. So, unless you know for certain that the child is developmentally ready for it, just stick with the guidelines. John Drengenberg from UL adds, “Even if a child is developmentally ready, they all have a tendency to put thing in their mouths. Small parts and pieces make it ill-advised to move too far beyond the suggested age range for a toy.”
- Look for UL Mark on electronic toys. As long as you’re reading the label for age, check for the UL Mark to indicate that an electronic toy has been thoroughly safety tested. The UL-in-a-circle-Mark will be prominent on the box of any toy that has been UL certified.
- Think large and sturdy. For children under age three, all pieces of a toy should be larger than the child’s mouth (or too big to fit through a toilet paper roll) to avoid risk of choking. According to the AAP guidelines on toy safety, make sure that plastic toys are sturdy and stuffed toys are well-made and machine washable so that pieces cannot be easily pulled off and ingested.
- Check for product recalls. 99.9 percent of the time this tip applies to the toys already in your home and not ones you would be purchasing new, But, if a massive toy infusion like a birthday or holiday is fast approaching, it is worth checking out the big list of toy recalls before you buy a toy and your kid falls in love with it.
- Ask the parents. Finally, before buying doll clothes for a child with no doll or noisy toys for any child, ask the parents what is appropriate and welcome into the home.
When in doubt, what’s even more fun than a new toy? A membership to a children’s museum that gets everyone out of the house without cluttering it! Check out our list of non-stuff stuff that makes great gifts for all ages.
Do you have any more safe shopping guidelines to share?
Related links:
Ideas for non-material gifts
Consumer Product Safety Commission product recalls
Toy safety guidelines from the American Academy of Pediatrics
5 Responses to “Birthday party gifts: shopping for safer toys”
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