Making sure the holiday gifts you buy are safe
Saturday - 11/19/2011, 12:25pm ET
WASHINGTON - Each year more than 150,000 children are injured from unsafe toys. How can you be sure the toys you're buying won't harm your children?
There are a few toys you probably shouldn't buy your children, especially if they are very young.
"Always avoid purchasing toys that have very small parts, very loose parts that could lead to choking," says Dr. Toni Thompson-Chittams, a pediatrician at TLC Pediatrics in Bowie, Md.
She says a good test is called the toilet paper tube test. If the toy or parts of the toy can fit through a toilet paper tube, it's too children 3 and under.
Toys with magnets also aren't a good idea.
"We see this a lot, typically in our emergency room, where a child will swallow a couple of these and lead to a lot of intestinal obstruction," says Dr. Thompson-Chittams.
She says that you should also check for toys that may have toxins that could harm your children.
She says you should outright avoid buying any projectile weapons, such as bows and arrows.
"We see a lot of eye injuries as a result of those toys."
She also says that you should buy protective gear along with any riding toy.
WTOP's Debra Feinstein contributed to this report. Follow WTOP on Twitter.
(Copyright 2011 by WTOP. All Rights Reserved.)
