Public Library Of Youngstown & Mahoning County: Safe Toys And Gifts Month

Press release from the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County:

Sara Churchill

December 8th, 2021

December is Safe Toys and Gifts Month. With the many holidays celebrated in December, it is the biggest gift-giving month of the year. After all, who doesn’t enjoy bringing a smile to someone, particularly a child, by giving them a fun toy to play with? However, did you know that there are almost a quarter million injuries from toys every year? To help reduce the chance of injury, it is important to pay attention to the labels on toys when choosing age-appropriate toys which meet safety standards. The Consumer Product and Safety Commission (a resource linked on our Consumer Resources webpage) has a printable brochure and poster on toy shopping guidelines. And you can always check SaferProducts.gov for recall information, especially important to check when buying used and/or older toys (plus this is the site to report any incidents you have with toys as well).

KidsInDanger.org has a great acronym to remember when picking out toys: T-R-A-C-K.

For additional safety information and tips from KidsInDanger.org, check out their Product Hazards-Toys article.

Another place to visit for safe toy information is the U.S. Public Interest Research Group (U.S. PIRG) website which publishes a report each year: Trouble in Toyland.  Click here for the latest report. And they provide some great toy safety tips on “what to watch for” when shopping, such as sound, small parts, balloons, and more. Plus, they have a note for Online Shoppers: “Age ratings and safety labels shown on websites may not match the labels on the toys. Make sure to examine the actual packaging when the products arrive.”

The American Public Health Association provides many of the same tips as other sites.  However, they also include specific guidelines for purchasing for children who are visually impaired. And you may want to call Prevent Blindness America at 800-331-2020 or click here for their safety list.

Kids Health, a resource linked on our library’s Health Resources webpage, has created guidelines to help with choosing age-appropriate gifts. As they note:

“Be sure to consider your child’s temperament, habits, and behavior whenever you buy a new toy. Even a child who seems advanced compared with other kids the same age shouldn’t use toys meant for older kids. The age levels for toys are determined by safety factors, not intelligence or maturity.”

Read more about choosing safe toys:

Of course, even with buying a safe toy, there are tips to follow with playing with toys to avoid accidents, both for children and adults. After all, how many parents out there have tripped and fallen – or just really hurt their feet – when stepping on a toy? KidsHealth.org asks parents to:

And, a great tip for avoiding illness – something that has certainly been on our minds during this long pandemic:

Here’s a printable poster from the Consumer Product Safety Commission on playing with toys.

A final resource to use is SafeKids.org. They maintain lists of recalls specific to children’s products which you can sign up to receive by email. Here is their toy satety tips page. You may also enjoy their blog: A (Safe) Toy Story.

Wishing you all a happy and safe gift giving season!

Sara Churchill

Sara Churchill is the Digital Services Specialist and Assistant Supervisor in the Information Services Department at Main Library. A major fan of technology devices and computer research resources at work, she enjoys helping everyone learn to use their devices and the library's many online resources.  She loves reading Science Fiction/Fantasy books, British cozy mysteries, True Crime and other true stories, plus a past reader of horror fiction by the likes of Stephen King and John Saul (among others).  Also, she’s a big fan of Sci-fi, action, horror, spaghetti westerns, and based-on-a-true story movies.  Her blogs are for adults and the entire family to enjoy reading and trying out the many online resources free for PLYMC library cardholders to use.

This press release was produced by the Public Library of Youngstown & Mahoning County. The views expressed here are the author’s own.