Pediatrician shares the dangers of 4 toys she wouldn’t buy for her own kids

December 17th, 2017

Awake Goy

Image: Pediatrician shares the dangers of 4 toys she wouldn’t buy for her own kids

(Natural News)
Holiday season is the season of giving. If you are a parent, you may want to carefully think about the toys you will pick for your kids or other children before buying them. Anne Bayer, a pediatrician from Galisano Children’s Hospital, shares the hazards of four toys she would not buy for her children. Listed below are the four popular items that parents should refrain from buying.

Trampolines – Trampolines are toys that have caused the greatest number of children being sent to the emergency room every year. A study found that more than 100,000 people end up in the emergency room because of trampoline injuries each year, and most of them are children. The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) has also discouraged the use of trampolines at home. In addition, another study revealed that even though some trampolines are equipped with nets and other safety measures, they do not really provide any added protection from trampoline injuries.
Fidget spinners – The fidget spinner was one of the most popular toys in 2017. It was advertised as an antidote for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, anxiety, and autism. However, it is also being banned in schools in the United States. A fidget spinner is a small, ball-bearing toy that can be rotated between the user’s fingers. Because of its structure, it can be potentially dangerous. It can fall apart, and the components can be ingested by younger kids. The risk is higher for cheap knockoffs, or those that have LED lights. Authorities in Germany have destroyed 35 tons of fidget spinners for this reason.
Foam-tipped dart guns – You may think that just because a toy dart gun has a foam on its tip that it is safe for your children to play with. On the contrary, Brayer said that she regularly sees children in their emergency room who were hit by a toy dart gun by accident, and most of them have taken a foam dart or arrow to the eye. As a safety measure, she recommends parents to make their children wear protective goggles if ever their children play with these kinds of toys just to make sure they will not get hurt.
Toys that contain unsecured lithium batteries – Brayer said that the small, silver button batteries can be very dangerous if ingested. She also said that thousands of children are being sent to emergency rooms every year because of button-battery related exposures. Aside from toys, these batteries can be found in remote controls, calculators, and flashlights.

Some general guidelines to remember when shopping for toys

Toys are an essential part of a child’s development. However, children are being rushed to hospitals’ emergency departments because of toy-related injuries. Here are other guidelines when buying kids’ toys:

When buying toys made of fabric, they should have the label of “flame resistant” or “flame retardant.”
Stuffed toys should be washable.
The paint used for painted toys should be lead-free.
Art materials should be labeled as nontoxic.
Coloring materials, such as crayons and paints, should have ASTM D-4236 on the package. This means that they have been evaluated by the American Society for Testing and Materials.
Make sure a toy is not too loud for your child because the noise of some rattles, squeak toys, and musical or electronic toys can be as loud as a car horn if a child holds it directly to the ears. This in turn can cause hearing damage.