8 hazards to avoid when buying toys

Jeff Holloway, MD

Pediatric Sports Medicine

Anyone who has wandered down a toy aisle or scrolled online looking for the perfect present knows how overwhelming toy buying can be. In your quest to find the right toy for your child, you might wonder if they’ll even like it or if it will be something they’ll actually play with. When it comes to toy buying, however, safety should be at the top of your list. Jeffrey Holloway, MD, explained what to be aware of and which hazards to avoid when buying toys.

According to the Public Interest Network, there are about 150,000 toy-related deaths and injuries treated in emergency rooms among children ages 14 and younger in the United States every year. Although numbers have been somewhat steady from 2014 to 2023, they seem to be inching higher recently, likely due to an increase in uninspected imported toys coming into the United States.

Making sure you buy toys from reputable companies is important. Sites like Temu and Shein have been known to sell counterfeit items that can be unsafe for children.

Here are eight other hazards Dr. Holloway said to look out for:

1.Riding toys. Think scooters, bikes or anything with wheels.

“One of the biggest causes of injuries when it comes to riding toys is that kids fall and hit their heads,” he said. “Concussion is a very common thing, so we often recommend getting helmets along with those riding toys because a helmet can reduce the risk of injury by over 80%.”

2. Small objects. Anything with small parts can be dangerous for kids under 3 years old.

“If it can fit into a toilet paper tube, it will fit inside the child’s mouth and the likelihood of choking on it is extremely high,” Dr. Holloway said. “Kids also put things in their ears and in their nose that can be hard to extract.”

3. Water beads. These are colorful, squishy beads that are very small but expand with water.

“If you swallowed a bunch of these beads, then drank water, they could expand and cause a lot of internal damage,” Dr. Holloway said. “Unfortunately, I’ve even heard of a death that happened from these. Beads are very hard to control. They’re easily rolled off the table, so you think you have them contained, but for little hands they are just a quick grab and swallow.”

If this happens, it’s important to seek medical care immediately. Water beads can block airways, intestines, bowels and lungs. They’ve even caused damage in ear canals and nasal cavities because they don’t need much moisture to expand. They can go in easily, swell up and be very hard to come out. They also look a lot like candy and are often found inside other toys.

“I had an 18-month-old who wanted to get them out thinking they were gummies,” Dr. Holloway said. “They were in a squishy item that had the beads embedded inside. If it burst, the beads could come out and be easily swallowed.”

4. High-powered magnets. These have been marketed as fidget toys, which can be extremely dangerous if ingested. Swallowed magnets can bind together inside the intestines where they must be removed surgically.

Although there has been an effort to ban high powered magnets from being used in toys, they can sometimes be found in desk accessories for adults, such as little puzzles that click together magnetically, which can also be appealing to kids.

5. Lead, including lead paint and materials that have lead in them. The U.S. has banned the use of lead for years, but it can still be found in some toys that are shipped from overseas. That’s why it’s important to avoid counterfeit toys.

“Any toy can wind up in a kid’s mouth and the lead is easily transferred,” Dr. Holloway said. “Exposure to lead can permanently damage a child’s brain and cognitive ability.”

6. Cell button batteries. These are tiny, round batteries that go into small electronics, but they can cause problems if they’re swallowed.

“There are new batteries being marketed now that have a bitter taste to them, so if a kid puts it into their mouth, they spit it out right away,” Dr. Holloway said. “That’s perhaps a safer option if you use those, but also be very diligent about disposing of them. Those batteries can cause holes in the stomach and intestines.”

7. Loud toys. A child’s hearing can be damaged if volume is high for long periods of time, so be sure to check sound levels.

8. Smart toys. These are toys that connect to the internet and often have cameras. Devices, such as gaming systems, may show ads and, in some cases, encourage online interaction with strangers. They also have the potential for chatting and location sharing with strangers.

“You might not think that your kid playing a game or with a toy connected to the internet could expose them to danger, but the technology has become so good that a small toy can be very powerful and allow strangers to connect to them, even allowing personal information to be shared or sold,” Dr. Holloway said.

This is also the case with toys that encourage personalization, requiring a child to set up a user profile.

“Most parents wouldn’t think that’s a big deal,” he added. “A kid naturally wants to share information about favorite interests or about their family and friends. Personalization may feel really cool because it allows a smart toy to say their name back, but the information often is not confined to that toy.”

Parents can protect their children by making sure their home network and WiFi are secure with strong passwords. Also, be aware that device cameras can potentially be accessed remotely. This applies to everything from baby monitors to home security cameras to gaming systems. Be sure you understand what the toy does and how your child may interact with it, even the simplest device. Seek out the expertise you may need to get it set up in a safe way.

The amount of time spent playing gaming devices can also become a problem.

“In general, we recommend limiting screen time to two hours,” Dr. Holloway said. “That’s very hard nowadays with kids using devices at school. So, I think it helps to be smart about the timing. Setting limits helps prevent device use from becoming addictive.”

Be sure to set up parental controls ahead of time so you have guardrails in place before your child begins playing with the toy.