August 15, 2012

Safety Warnings Regarding Infant Gift Sets and Baby Items



One of the many joys parents have when having children is buying cute baby items that retailers purchased on wholesale. Families and friends also often have a fun time buying infant gift sets for their expecting friend. One thing everyone needs to keep in mind when buying infant gift sets is the child's safety. Children, especially newborns, are very curious and like to play with or suck on things they should not be handling.

The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) made a list of what threats certain toys and product can present, including choking, strangulation, suffocation, aspiration, electrical, thermal, drowning, poisoning, falls, and miscellaneous. Some of these obviously refer to house safety and what parents should do to childproof their house. Some of them refer to baby items often found in infant gift sets, and this article will describe toys or products that are hazardous because of choking, strangulation, or poisoning.

Choking

Some baby items that have been placed on a safety-warning list include smaller balls, marbles, rattles, and crayons. Infants and newborns are known for being curious and sucking or chewing on anything they can get their hands on. Crayons, especially imported ones, have the potential to have lead in them, which could cause serious health damage. Marbles and balls can easily be swallowed, so the CPSC required balls smaller than 1.75 inches to require special labels. The CPSC also requires rattles be bigger than the average child's mouth so they have no chance of swallowing them and getting them stuck in their throats.

Strangulation

There are the obvious products that pose strangulation threats, such as strings, cords, necklaces, window cords, wall decorations, crib toys, and so on. Some of the more surprising baby items that create a strangulation possibility include: toy chest lids, baby strollers, baby gates, and playpens. Toys and items that can be wrapped around the neck are not the only things needing to be considered. Parents also need to remember that things like toy chest tops can fall on a baby's neck, or a baby can stick their head in baby gates that have diamond shaped openings and get stuck. It is the little things like these that parents need to be extra-cautious about.

Poisoning

Parents should already have knowledge of the household chemicals they need to keep safeguarded and locked away. Some things they might be surprised to learn about that they should be careful about are things that could contain lead, like the crayons that were mentioned previously. Lead can cause some serious health problems, including permanent hearing and vision problems, learning disabilities, and growth impairment.

There are a number of things that parents, especially new ones, need to worry about with their child. Parents should consult the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission's website if they have more questions, or are uncertain about a baby item they received in an infant gift set.

No comments:

Post a Comment