SWEETWATER, FLA. (WSVN) - While you’re out shopping during the holiday hustle, it’s important to be mindful of your child’s safety.
Before parents head out to shop for Black Friday deals, the Consumer Product Safety Commission is reminding them to keep a few things in mind for toys and kid safety.
“Toys, while fun, are still a risk for kids, about 145,000 trips to the emergency room last year,” said Alexander Hoehn-Saric, Consumer Product Safety Commission chairman. “The number one was actually non-motorized scooters. 35,000 of those, trips to the emergency room.”
The CPSC recommends adding safety gear to your shopping list if you’re looking for scooters or bicycles. Another product they want parents to be careful with are water beads, especially for families with young children.
“We’ve been seeing a lot of issues with water beads recently,” Hoehn-Saric said. “There are these toys that are tiny, tiny, but you put them in water, and they expand to be much bigger. Even for buying for an older child, they’re so easy to get lost and then a curious child, a baby, finds it, swallows it, expands. It’s caused horrendous injuries and even death.”
And because these beads are made up mostly of water, they can be difficult to detect on X-rays, which makes it harder for doctors to tell if someone swallowed one.
One lawmaker in Washington D.C. cited these risks in proposed legislation earlier this November that would ban them nationwide.
These water beads are popular as a sensory toy and for filling up inflatable pools, so the CPSC recommends parents to be vigilant of small toys like these that can pose serious choking risks to small children in their home.
So while you are out this holiday season, shopping for kids, you should be thinking about toys that are safe. Also, keep in mind when shopping online. The same rules apply: Toys that are safe for kids.
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