Is the Toy Your Child Got For Christmas Unsafe?

We all assume that toys are all fun and safe to play with, but unfortunately this is not the case. Below are some recent examples of toys that have been recalled because they were found to be dangerous:

• Baby Einstein Musical Motion Activity Jumper. The “sun” attachment on this toy can rebound with sufficient force to injure an infant. Approximately 400,000 of these jumpers made before November 2011 were recalled, and more than 60 injuries have been reported due to the sun attachment, including an infant who suffered a fractured skull.

• Snoopy Sno-Cone Machine. This toy was recalled in December 2013 because a small brass rivet can detach from the ice shaving cylinder and end up in a sno-cone, potentially causing a mouth injury.

• Toys R Us Journey Travel Girl Trunk. The metal handle on this trunk can be extremely sharp, and Toys R Us has received six reports of incidents involving the handle, including one report of the handle causing a laceration that required stitches.

• Cosmo Beads Water-Absorbing Polymer Beads. These beads look very much like candy, but when swallowed by a child, they expand and cause intestinal obstructions that may be life threatening. If ingested, the beads need to be surgically removed from the child’s body, as was the case with an eight-month old child who recently swallowed a water-absorbing polymer ball.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) publishes a list of dangerous or defective toys that have been recalled, and continually updates the list on the CPSC website. This is a great resource for parents to keep up with current recalls.

It is also very important for parents to register their purchases by filling out and returning registration forms that come with products, when available. This allows manufacturers to quickly notify consumers if a product they have purchased has been recalled.