The Gift of Giving SAFER toys!

Hi everyone! With finals finished…‘Tis the season to start our holiday shopping!

Toys, toys, toys…but how to avoid the plastic ones? Thinking about my research sources, I immediately pulled out my smartphone and went onto Healthy Child Healthy World and found a whole page on “Toxic Toys: How to Choose a Safe Toy for Children” (http://www.healthychild.org/blog/comments/toxic_toys_how_to_choose_a_safe_toy_for_children/).

Healthy Child Healthy World explained to me that it is best to avoid plastics in general, especially vinyl plastic toys. These toys are loaded with chemicals like lead and phthalates. As a general rule of thumb we avoid plastic numbers 3, 6, and 7 in the grocery store, and so it goes for plastic toys. These plastic numbers will typically be found on the bottom of the item within a recycling symbol.  Many of the hard, plastic toys also contain BPA, unless labeled as “BPA-Free”.

I decided to go home and check on my computer for safer toy alternatives. There actually are websites dedicated to providing safe toys for children that avoid chemicals like phthalates, lead, and BPA. Some websites that I found are http://www.planethappytoys.com/, http://naturalpod.com/, and http://www.oompa.com/.

I know I will be sure to avoid purchasing toys made of plastic for the children I babysit for because I do not want to give them a gift containing toxic chemicals. Protect our loved ones with safer non-plastic holiday toys!

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