Safety is always number one priority when it comes to children. Considering how they are the most vulnerable part of our society, it is our duty to try our best to protect them and keep their environment safe at all times. If you are a parent you know how true that is. In this blog, we discuss safety with toys.
Even the most random and most innocent things could present serious safety hazards for children. For example, one of the most beloved things by children – toys, could present great risks for the young ones.
Although we like to think and pray that nothing bad will ever happen, it is always a great idea to do your best to protect yourself and your loved ones. With that in mind, today we have tried to create a guide for parents, to help with safety with toys.
First step for safety with toys
Think about how play time usually begins for your children? The first step always includes bringing the toys out of the toy box. So let’s start our guide for safety with toys by talking about the toy box.
There are two main things you should keep in mind when choosing a secure toy box. The first is physical injuries. Try finding a box that has an opening that is light, so that even if it falls on someone’s fingers, it won’t damage them.
Best would be to find an open box and keep it open. This would solve the next problem which is the tendency of young children to explore every area they can. Sometimes the area they explore can be the inside of their toybox.
A toy box that is open is perfect because even if your child falls inside it at some point, there isn’t any risk of suffocation. If you have a box that you keep closed, then make sure it has holes so that even if it gets closed, there will still be air circulation inside it.
Another thing to keep in mind as a general rule for safety with toys, is to read the label of any toy you plan on buying. Make sure that they don’t contain any sort of material that could be toxic, especially if you have very young children.
Most babies have a tendency to put thing in their mouth. Also pay attention so that there isn’t any chemical that your baby might be allergic to.
Safe toys make for safe play
After you make sure that your toy box is safe and that there’s a general level of safety for the toys your kids play with, it’s time to let them enjoy. The most important thing is for you to be present at all times.
You probably already know how important it is to be observing your children when they play.
Another thing to pay attention to is the size of the toys. Do the best you can to give your children only toys that are big enough so that they can’t swallow them. This will eliminate the possibility of choking.
You should always keep in mind the things that could go wrong when buying a new toy. Choking, strangulation, entrapment, skin cuts, and such… It sounds a bit morbid but it is a good way to make sure that the toys you buy can’t cause any of those.
Check out that there isn’t any long rope-like object attached to the toys you buy, or that they aren’t easy to break and cause cuts. Safety with toys begins with safe toys, and ends with you paying attention to your child playing.
It is also very important that you respect the guidelines regarding the age groups suitable to play with the toys you want to buy.
There are many toys that at first sight might seem like they are okay to be used by children younger than what the label recommends.
Never make this mistaken assumption. The reason why companies put those regulations, is because they don’t want to end up in court. So probably they have seen that there is a possibility for problems to occur.
Be very careful with electric toys. For maximum safety with toys, we would recommend going as far as keeping the electric toys completely out of the picture. Not only are they dangerous for obvious reasons, but sometimes the batteries found within these toys can be very toxic.
If you reckon that’s too much, make sure that all the electric toys you own are UL Approved. You can find out about this in the labels.
There’s a lot of things that a parent will always be concerned about. Most of these things are out of our control and we can do little to prevent them.
However when it comes to safety with toys, that’s something that we can take care of ourselves, and at least we can try our best to make it a safe and enjoyable process.
