Toy danger: it's not just lead that worries this pediatrician mom

The recent news coverage about the lead paint on toys has made me think of a conversation I once had with a woman I’d always thought of as a sensible person and a great mom.  She told me that she and her husband thought that trampolines were very dangerous and that they would never think of buying one for their elementary school-aged children—and then, quite seamlessly, she segued into telling me that her family’s favorite weekend activity was riding all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) together.

Trampolines can certainly be dangerous; according to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, 11 people were killed while using them between 1990 and 2000.   Compare this to the data on ATV’s: in 2005 alone, ATV-related accidents killed 467 people.

Don’t get me wrong; lead is bad.   It does damage to the nervous system, and since the brains of children are still developing, the damage it does to them can be lifelong.  To make matters worse, most of the time lead poisoning doesn’t cause any symptoms that might alert parents.  It does its damage silently.  Parents need to listen carefully to recall news and be sure they get all lead-laden toys away from their children.  To sign up for e-mail notifications from the CPSC, go to www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx.

But I worry a little that parents might think that as long as their child’s toys aren’t on the lead recall list, they are safe—and I worry that there is so much in the news about lead in toys that parents are going to lose sight of the other dangers, and of the bigger, worrisome toy picture.

Take, for example, this year’s list of the Ten Most Dangerous Toys, put out by W.A.T.C.H (World Against Toys Causing Harm).  Lead-contaminated toys are there, but so are magnet toys (this is a biggie—swallow two and they can stick together inside you and cause serious trouble), sharp swords and spinning daggers, rubber band shooters, toxic chemical goop that kids are supposed to blow into balloons through a tube, a hot Dora the Explorer lamp, and toys that are choking hazards.  For the whole list, go to: http://www.toysafety.org/worstToyList_index.html. 

With lead, there’s a blood test to look for dangerous levels of it and treatment, if it’s caught early enough.  But if your kid chokes, or gets a hole in his intestine because two magnets are stuck through it, there may not be time for treatment.  When you look at the data about toys that truly kill, ones that choke a child to death are highest on the list.  Next are scooters, riding toys, and other things with wheels that get kids out into traffic.  Next are toys with cords or other attachments that “entangle”, which is the nice way of saying “strangle”.  And most of these toys aren’t on a recall list anywhere.

I don’t mean to terrify parents.  Well, maybe I do—if it gets their attention.  This lead paint scandal is, in many ways, the tip of the iceberg.  Increasingly, toys on the market are simply not good for children.

With the holidays approaching, here are a few safety tips for parents:

• Read the age guidelines.  If it says a toy is meant for ages 3 and up, don’t buy it for your 1-year-old.  It’s that simple.
• Be mindful of who else might play with the toy.  I have five kids ranging in age from 16 to 2, so this is an issue in my house.  I’m not saying everybody has to play with wooden blocks and rattles.  But setting (and enforcing) house rules as to where toys are played with and stored is crucial.
• Use common sense.  You know your kids, and your house and yard, best.  What is your son or daughter really likely to do with that sword?  Do you have any safe place to play with that flying, spinning thing?

It’s not just lead and other bodily harm that worries me.  As a pediatrician and a mom, I am also concerned about the direction toys are going in.  I remember spending hours as a kid in the neighbor’s backyard playing Time Machine with the box her refrigerator came in.  And when we got tired of that game, we pretended it was a castle—or a secret, invisible hideout that kept us safe from invaders.  These days, a toy is considered boring if it doesn’t do something—and yet, I’ve found that when I give in and buy the toys my kids pine for after watching the commercials for them, they get played with once or twice and then gather dust.  I worry that we are raising a generation of kids who need immediate gratification from their toys—and don’t know how to turn a refrigerator box into a time machine.  So I say ignore the pining (while you’re at it, shut off the TV)and look for toys that encourage kids to imagine, create, and move, like:

• Painting and drawing materials, and lots of paper
• Modeling clay
• Blocks and other building things
• Dress-up clothes (check out thrift stores for fun, inexpensive stuff)
• Other toys that encourage make-believe, like a doctor’s kit or play food
• Balls and other things that get kids playing outdoors, and
• Books (of course!)

Claire McCarthy, M.D., is a senior medical editor for Harvard Health Publications. She is an instructor in pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, an attending physician at Children's Hospital of Boston, and co-director of the pediatrics department at Martha Eliot Health Center, a neighborhood health service of Children's Hospital. The author of two books, "Learning How the Heart Beats" and "Everyone's Children", Dr. McCarthy was a regular columnist for "Sesame Street Parents Magazine" from 1995 to 1998 and is currently a contributing editor for "Parenting Magazine".

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