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LIVING: Armed Forces
Living Green
Lisa Douglas
Mother of 6
Green Living Aficionado
www.crazyadventuresinparenting.com
Green Your Baby Toys
by Lisa Douglas posted Aug 2010
Safety is a must when you've begun having children. There are many safety devices out there nowadays to prevent accidents in the home. However, safety doesn't just stop there. A child's toy may be unsafe, and you may not have even realized its danger in your home and to your family.
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Archives: Green Living
Let's face it; it's inevitable that everything in a baby's hand will end up in its mouth. But what exactly are they putting in their mouth when they do it? Do you know what their toy is made of? A lot of people don't bother to think about that. They think because it's being sold on store shelves and offered, that it's safe. Without knowing toy safety dangers, many subject their children to harm by the toxins and chemicals in their toys, unknowingly.
Those soft, squishy, teddy bears are created with commercial cotton and other fibers which are exposed to pesticides and other chemicals to keep bugs and pests away to improve the crop. Those pesticides are still in the fabric, sewn into your child's new "lovey" and are being consumed when your child's mouth swallows saliva after touching the toy, or absorbed into their skin after holding it.
In addition, plastics in children's bright and colorful toys have all types of chemicals running through them. I'm sure you've read a lot about phthalates and BPA (Bisphenol-A) recently in cups and containers, well it applies in children's toys, too. PVC (polyvinyl chloride) is also often found in plastic teethers, and gives off poisonous chemical offgassing and contains the aforementioned phthalates.
How do you know what your child's toy is made out of? The easiest way to know a child or baby toy is safe is to read the labels and buy only all-natural or organic choices. Ones made from all-wood (untreated and unfinished wood, that is, and not pressed wood or particle board using wood glue), and those toys that specifically state that they are made from hemp, bamboo, organic-cotton or wool. Always choose ones that are eco-friendly, and without chemicals, toxic paints or plastics. (Yes, even paints are harmful, especially in your child's mouth where it can be bitten or chipped off, which then is ingested.)
Please do check the toys you already own. To be sure what you own does not have phthalates, BPA and PVC, check the recycling number on the toys. Numbers 1, 2, 3 or 5 means those chemicals aren't there, thankfully; but to be safe, you should probably rid yourself of them anyway. Don't forget to recycle!
Lisa Douglas is a blogger/writer of the parenting blog Crazy Adventures in Parenting, as well as a military wife and mom to six. Lisa is passionate about eating and consuming all-natural and organic products while living as green as possible in the military.
Ernst Vikne, Photographer
