Toddler Toys - Child Safety tips - Pampers

[MUSIC PLAYING] Once your child starts walking, they've got the whole world at their fingertips. But unfortunately, that world can have a lot of hazards too. I know, as soon as my kids started moving, they're putting everything in their mouth. They don't care it it's safe. They don't know. So we've invited Kim Dulic from the Consumer Product Safety Commission to talk to us about toy safety. Welcome to MommyCast. Thank you. Thank you for having me here. So I think in a toddler's world, everything's a toy. All things fair game. Everything. That's right. We look at for instance, a dresser as a dresser. Where a child may look at it as a stair step to get up to their favorite toy or product. When you're talking about what the Consumer Product Safety Commission does, you actually are the ones who set the standards, correct? That's right. The US Consumer Product Safety Commission is a federal government agency that sets standards and regulations for toys and children's products. In addition to another 15,000 or so products that the agency regulates. So we have-- we're a small agency with a big job. Our ultimate goal is to keep children and families safe. A lot of these toys are coming from foreign countries, in particular, China. Right. How do you regulate internationally? Yeah. Well the US Consumer Product Safety Commission sets standards and regulations that all manufacturers and distributors and retailers must comply with. So regardless of where the toy is coming from, they must meet federal safety standards and CPSC monitors that. We are at the docks monitoring imports. We're in stores random sampling. And we're receiving calls and information from consumers from moms and dads. We set the standards and toy manufacturers are required to comply with those standards. And if we find, for some reason, that they did not comply, then the CPSC has the right to recall the product and can level a penalty against the company. I mean, what happens if-- I guess, as a parent, how does it-- if it affects my child, what do we do? We want consumers to contact us, definitely. We want to hear from consumers. If you believe you have a product that will pose some type of risk, unreasonable risk or injury to your child, then you contact us. Let us know. Contact us and contact the company. And if the company finds out first, they're required by law to contact us within 24 hours to notify us. Whether there's been an incident or not, if they find a problem through testing, then they're required to contact us. And if we find a problem through our random sampling or from other agencies, then we work with the company to get that product off store shelves and out of consumers' homes. Now what about the paint and the plastics. And I mean-- That's what you hear about. Chemicals involved in stuff. I mean, at what point are you to be concerned as a parent? Because you can't tell that just by looking at it, that the paint is dangerous. That's the job of the Consumer Product Safety Commission. To set the standards for hazardous or potentially hazardous materials in a product. Children should not be able to access hazardous materials. And so, I mean, like if you have a toy that has some peeling paint or whatever. I mean, as a parent, you should be concerned. You don't want your child to ingest those anyway, right? If you have a toy that's peeling paint, that's something you want to pick up the phone and contact CPSC. Say hey, I have this product-- I would throw it away, right? I wouldn't think to call. But we should be calling. Yes, definitely. Call. You can reach us through our website. We're on social media. We have a toll free number. So you can reach the Commission in all sorts of ways to file a complaint or just to ask a question. So if you have a child who likes to climb, like on the dresser, and likes to explore and stuff. I mean, take us through the house and tell us some of the hazards that they could potentially get into in each room. Well with the dresser, CPSC has a tip over prevention safety campaign that we've recently launched. Because we've found that children use dressers and other household furniture as climbing instruments. And the items have been tipping over onto the children. And so we-- our campaign says anchor your furniture. See we always did that because we ed in California, it was because of earthquakes. You anchor all of those things anyway, because of earthquakes. But it is a good-- that's a very good point. Especially like bookshelves and that type of thing, they climb up. And I learned first hand. The girl that you may see on our tip over safety campaign poster is my daughter. I snapped a picture of her when I caught her going to do things that I'm warning others. Believe me. I know first hand. What about the rest of the, house, though? I mean, take us on a little virtual tour. OK, so starting with the child's room and the play room or family room, look at the toys in the toy box. Make sure none of those toys have been recalled. And you can do that by visiting CPSC's website. You look at the product, if it's been recalled, you call the telephone number, find out whether there's a refund, a repay, or replacement of that product. Or you can just get rid of the product. I bet we'd be surprised how much stuff we have that we haven't checked. Or maybe me. Especially if you have older children. I mean, you've got between Sam and John, you've got 15 years. I know. Like, a lot happens in fifteen years. If you still have toys-- you know. And then if you have older children, keeping those away from the younger children. I mean, because Legos are all the rage for those older kids. But those little Lego pieces are exactly the wrong size for toddlers. That's an important fact. When you have older children and keeping the older children's toys away from younger children, it's very important. Because just like we said, that the small parts, you don't want a child to mouth those small parts of the older child's toys. Toys are age labeled. When you look on the packaging, it may say, not for a child that's three or younger. Under three years old. And that's because that toy has small parts. And we know young children mouth everything. They put everything in their mouth. So toys that are not meant for them may have small parts. And one way a parent can check to make sure that-- if they have a product that they think may be a small part of something that can go in a child's mouth, then use a toilet paper roll. Drop the toy in. If it goes down in there, then it's too small for a child under the age of 3. I think it's interesting though, because you always think about, OK. Lock the cabinet. Put the poisons up high. And yet mom's purse is sitting on the floor and there's a bottle of aspirin in there. Or there's cough drops or something that's just the right size to choke on. Or even grandma, when she comes over. And she has the Monday through Friday pill container. That's easy access for a child to come and get into. I know also for instance, there's been a lot of talk about the recalls for curtain pulls and that type of thing. If you have an older home with older curtains, maybe you haven't gotten that point and you need to be very careful about that too. Yeah, absolutely. CPSC recommends that you go cordless. Cordless is the safest option for you if you have small children. How do you go cordless? With the little twisty things. There's a tension on it. And you pull the tension and it goes up or you pull it down. Poinsettias are very poisonous, correct? Yeah. You want to keep poinsettias away from children. Don't let them-- just like with anything else, don't let them dig into the dirt or pull off the leaves. Just maybe place them up out of reach. Yeah. But there are other household plants too that can be very poisonous. You do have to be very careful about that. Why do we have household plants that are poisonous? What are we doing? Well. I mean, they're beautiful. OK. I don't know. You can just look them up. Or you can go to CPSC.gov or there's also Poisonprevention.org where you can find out more information. And we say children act fast and so do poisons, when we talk about poison prevention, but children just act fast in general. So we recommend that parents get on your hands and knees and crawl around and get a child's view of the house. And that's one way to take a virtual tour of the house. When you think about other rooms. Your kitchen and bath. When we talk about poison prevention, you want to keep household medicines and chemicals locked up and out of reach. 90% unintentional poisons to young children under the age of five occur in the home. So you want to think about that. Not leaving your purse or anything with medicine open and around children. Lock medicines up and out of reach. Make sure you reseal the child resistant cap every time. I'm all about the child resistant caps. I can barely open them myself. Kim, thank you so much for coming to MommyCast today. This has been great information. Thank you for having me. And if you'd like more information on this topic, you can go to MommyCast.com or CPSC.gov. And if you want to share your own cautionary tales, go to MommyCast's Facebook page. We have no problem with crying on MommyCast. There is crying on MommyCast. It's usually Paige. For those who see the world as their playground, you need more than an ordinary diaper. It's why there's Pampers Cruisers. 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