Safe Toys and Gifts Awareness Month

Posted by Nora Barnett on December 19th, 2024 Posted in: Blog
Tags: Safe Toys and Gifts Awareness Month

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December is Safe Toys and Gifts Awareness Month. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission’s report on toy-related deaths and injuries revealed that in 2023, there were ten toy-related fatalities and an estimated 231,700 toy-related injuries.

Picking out toys and gifts? Safety comes first! Make sure they’re a great match for the child’s age and abilities. Here are some helpful resources to guide you in making smart, safe choices.

U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission
U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission provides guidelines on selecting safe toys for children, emphasizing age-appropriateness and hazard prevention. It discusses buying, maintaining, and storing toys; risks to look out for; and advice on keeping toys safe. It also maintains a searchable database of recalled toys and product safety warnings, and allows you to sign up for e-mail notices about recalled toys and to report an unsafe toy.

Prevent Blindness
With a focus on preventing eye injuries and a reminder that thousands of children age 14 and younger suffer serious eye injuries, even blindness, from toys, Prevent Blindness has

• a safe toy checklist, which includes toy selection guidelines, and
• a list of tips for choosing safe toys, which includes information on selecting a safe toy, age-specific considerations, keeping children safe after buying a toy, and other considerations to prevent eye injuries.

Nemours KidsHealth (via MedlinePlus)
Nemours KidsHealth offers its Choosing Safe Toys page in in audio format and in Spanish. The page includes toy safety guidelines, information on keeping toys safe at home, and information on choosing safe toys by age range. Additional pages (all available in audio format and Spanish) include tips for choosing safe toys

• for Babies
• for Toddlers and Preschoolers
• for School-Age Kids
• Smart Toys for Every Age

Short on Time?
This brief video from HHS covers important points quickly!

Curious about the Evidence?
The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) report, Selecting Appropriate Toys for Young Children in the Digital Era, highlights the benefits and potential risks of toy choices on child development, emphasizing the value of traditional toys in fostering play-based interactions that support language, problem-solving, creativity, and caregiver engagement. It addresses concerns about the shift toward digital media-based toys, noting a lack of evidence for similar developmental benefits. It raises awareness about the role of toys in advertising, and discusses safety and health hazards associated with toy availability and accessibility in public settings, including some health care settings.

Pet Toys and Gifts
The Humane Society offers a guide to picking safe dog toys, while Purdue University offers tips on safe toys specifically for puppies. Meanwhile, Cornell Veterinary Medicine has a page with advice for picking safe toys for cats, and UW School of Veterinary Medicine’s ”Ask a Veterinarian” column provides expert guidance on selecting safe and suitable toys for cats.