This holiday season make sure the toys you buy your kids are safe. Many products and toys hold batteries that could be hazardous when in the possession of children. Read the information below from Safe Kids Mid-South.

FACT: The coin-sized batteries children swallow come from many devices, most often mini remote controls. Other places you may find them are singing greeting cards, watches, bathroom scales and flameless candles.
FACT: It takes as little as two hours to cause severe burns once a coin-sized lithium battery has been swallowed.
FACT: Once burning begins, damage can continue even after the battery is removed. Kids can still breathe with the coin lithium battery in their throat. It may not be obvious at first that something is wrong. Repairing the damage is painful and can require multiple surgeries.

Safe Kids Mid-South, led by Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, offers these top tips for battery safety:

• SEARCH your home, and any place your child goes, for gadgets that may contain coin lithium batteries.
• SECURE coin lithium battery-controlled devices out of sight and reach of children and keep loose batteries locked away.
• SHARE this life-saving information with caregivers, friends, family members and sitters.         

Keep the National Battery Ingestion Hotline number handy. It’s 202-625-3333 for additional treatment information.

Top 5 Tips for Safe Holiday Toy Shopping

Each year, more than 3 billion toys and games are sold in the United States, with 65 percent of these sales occurring between the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas. Here are some tips from Safe Kids Mid-South, led by le Bonheur Children’s Hospital, to shop safe this holiday season:
• Consider the child's age, interest and skill level. A fun, but inappropriate toy for a particular child can be dangerous.
• Keep toys with small parts away from children under age 3. They can choke on small toys and toy parts.
• Shopping at a second hand store this holiday season? Check recalls.gov to make sure kids' products and toys are safe and haven't been recalled.
• Bikes or scooters make great holiday gifts. But remember that a helmet is a necessity, not an accessory when it comes to all wheeled sports for children of all ages.
• Consider alternatives to putting children in shopping carts including strollers and carts that have plastic mini-cars or trucks attached to the front or back. If you must use a cart, make sure your child stays seated and is secured by a seat belt.

 

Each year, more than 3 billion toys and games are sold in the United States, with 65 percent of these sales occurring between the day after Thanksgiving and the day before Christmas. Here are some tips from Safe Kids Mid-South to shop safe this holiday season:

• Consider the child's age, interest and skill level. A fun, but inappropriate toy for a particular child can be dangerous.
• Keep toys with small parts away from children under age 3. They can choke on small toys and toy parts.
• Shopping at a second hand shop this holiday season? Check recalls.gov to make sure kids' products and toys are safe and haven't been recalled.
• Bikes or scooters make great holiday gifts. But remember that a helmet is a necessity, not an accessory when it comes to all wheeled sports for children of all ages.
• Consider alternatives to putting children in shopping carts including strollers and carts that have plastic mini-cars or trucks attached to the front or back. If you must use a cart, make sure your child stays seated and is secured by a seat belt.
  

We are all looking for ways to cut corners, but I am concerned that some parents who are trying to save money might be buying cheaper, second-hand items that can actually be dangerous to their children, including:  

Child Safety Seats
Child Safety Seats should not be used if they have been involved in an accident and also are only good for a certain number of years, so a second-hand child safety with no known history should be avoided at all costs.   

Play Yards and Cribs
Children spend many unsupervised hours sleeping, which makes it critical that their beds be the safest place in the house.  Unfortunately, millions of cribs and portable child beds have been recalled in recent years for having faulty parts that can cause children to strangle and die.  If you are thinking of using a second hand crib, please check and see it if has been recalled for safety reasons.  

Also, you need to know what to look for when buying a bed – even if it hasn’t been recalled it could be too old so that it doesn’t meet current safety standards (slats are too far apart and child can strangle/pieces on the bed where a child’s clothing can get caught and strangle them) or in disrepair.  Check the Consumer Product Safety Commission’s Web site – www.cpsc.gov to see if a crib has been recalled and check the Safe Kids Crib Safety Checklist for crib guidelines.  

Toys
Many toys in circulation have high and dangerous levels of lead, some have magnet danger issues.  Check again with www.cpsc.gov to see if a toy has been recalled and shop for more traditional toys such as art supplies, and wooden toys that are from manufacturers known not to use lead paint.  When in doubt, don’t buy the toy.  

What can YOU do?  You can sign up to receive immediate e-mails when dangerous products are recalled via www.cpsc.gov/cpsclist.aspx and can check on previous recalls at www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prerel.html.  The notices have photos and/or descriptions of the products to help parents determine if they own the product.