>> From Penn State Health and Penn State Children's Hospital, this is Ask Us Anything About... Toy
Safety. I'm Scott Gilbert. Well, for many of us, children are on our holiday shopping
list, and that means toys are on the list. And we want to make sure that when we're out
there buying toys for children this holiday season, we don't just find something they'll
like and play with, but also something that's safe. And here with some tips on how we can
do just that is Amy Bollinger. She's manager of the Pediatric Trauma and Injury Prevention
Program here at Penn State Children's Hospital. Welcome back to Ask Us Anything About Amy.
>> Thanks, Scott.
>> You know, we'd like to think that toy recalls do their job, right? And that anything that's
dangerous gets recalled. But, in fact, the truth is, you know, when we walk into a toy
store, there are some dangers on those shelves, especially depending on the age of the child,
and some other factors.
>> There really are. We have to be very cautious about what we buy for our children and the
children we love. We want childhood to be fun. That's what being a kid is all about,
especially at the holiday time. But there are dangers and risks, and we want to find
the balance between finding something that's fun for a child, but also keeping him or her
safe.
>> So let's start with the youngest children, like ages one to five, right? So they're,
they're at an age where they probably don't perceive danger that well.
>> They do not. So, that's our largest patient population in pediatric trauma. Our children
ages one to five, we see a lot here. And that's because young kids are just learning to explore
their world. They don't understand the difference between a toy that's safe and a toy that is
dangerous. They just see a toy. And they want to have fun with it, explore it, because that's
their job. Their work is play.
>> And so one of the most common dangers for them are choke hazards.
>> Yes.
>> And I know you brought some examples, so let's turn the table behind us and look at
some of these here. Where do we want to start?
>> We can start with the toy tester.
>> So this is a great idea here. These tubes can actually, even just a regular old toilet
paper tube, can be a useful tool for parents.
>> Right. That's exactly right. So this is called a toy tester, and you can buy this
on many different websites. It costs a few dollars. If you don't want to spend the money,
a good old fashioned toilet paper roll will work just fine. And the premise behind this
is if the toy is too small for your child, or is a choking hazard, it will fit completely.
This is a marble. It will fit completely inside the toy tester, and therefore, be a choking
hazard and a risk for choking for your child. Same thing with a toilet paper roll. You take
a marble. If it fits inside, it's too small for a young child under the age of five.
>> And like I say, a lot of us probably, we can guess that a marble or small things are
going to be choke hazards. But things that are a little bit bigger that we think may
not be, they fit in that tube, and therefore, we don't want to get them for young children.
>> That's right. That's right. The younger the child, the higher the risk of choking,
and the higher the risk of injury. But still, we want to be cautious and make sure the toys
that fit inside the toilet paper roll may not be safe.
>> And so I've got two children at home. One is about four years older than the other.
And so that's a pretty common scenario. So one of the things to watch for in that case
is younger children playing with the older child's toys, right?
>> Absolutely. For those of us who have more than one child, we know that the younger sibling
usually idolizes and wants to do whatever the older sibling is doing. So, that is a
big risk with kids getting into their older siblings' toys. For example, we have a Barbie.
And Barbies are great for older children. But a small toddler gets into this. Thank
you.
>> Sure.
>> Here we have a Barbie shoe that's very, very tiny that could be a choking hazard.
We have other little pieces and parts of the Barbie that could be a danger. And the same
is true for boys, as well. There are toys that boys use to build, and they have small
pieces and parts. And when they're building their toys with small pieces and parts, young
children can get into them. They typically want to put everything in their mouth, and
that's when the choking piece comes in.
>> And so we see a toy like this, like a doll is obviously not a choking hazard.
>> Correct.
>> It's the accessories and the parts we have to think about.
>> That's exactly right. We worry about the small parts.
>> Sure. So a choking hazard, many people may not realize is one, is a common balloon.
Why?
>> Well, balloons are made out of latex, and once the balloon pops, that latex becomes
a slippery piece of rubber. It's very easy for a young child to put that piece of rubber
in his or her mouth, have it go back and completely block off their airway. When that happens,
it kind of crumples up inside the trachea, and it is almost impossible to get out emergently.
And that's a real risk for little kids, for small children.
>> You're watching Ask Us Anything About Toy Safety to Penn State Health and Penn State
Children's Hospital. We welcome your questions for Amy Bollinger. She manages the Pediatric
Trauma and Injury Prevention Program here. You can put them in the comment field, whether
you're watching this video live or after the fact, and we'll get you some answers in the
form of a live response or a comment reply. We're talking about choking hazards right
now. And here's an interesting, here's an interesting one here. Something that, it's
a hidden choking hazard, because it exists inside of things like this, the common key
fob that almost all of us have for our car. It's the button battery.
>> So this is a button battery. Button batteries can be found many different places. They can
be found in remote controls, in hearing aids, they can be found in bathroom scales, they
can be found in those keyless entry systems for sure. And this is a surgical emergency.
So if a child swallows this, what happens is the battery starts to erode through the
esophagus, the stomach lining, or the intestines. And that, and when I say erode, I mean it
puts a hole right through their internal organs.
>> Because there are chemicals, acids.
>> Right, chemicals and acids that are used to conduct the electricity to make the toy
light up, or the object work, but they're not meant for our insides.
>> And one more choking hazard to touch on that has kind of another complication. And
that's magnets, small magnets that can be swallowed, and what those can do inside the
intestine.
>> That's right. So if you think about how a magnet works, one magnet sticks to another
magnet. If that happens inside your body, that also becomes a surgical emergency, where
children come in and we have to take them to the operating room and remove those magnets.
It can cause obstructions in their intestines and can cause a tremendous amount of pain
for a child.
>> What questions do you have about toy safety? You know, if there are children on your holiday
shopping list and you have questions, we invite you to put those in the comment field below
this Facebook post and we'll get you some answers. This is Ask Us Anything About Toy
Safety from Penn State Health. And, you know, there's a substance that it seems like it's
become especially popular in the last couple years. Slime. And, you know
>> You're not a fan of slime.
>> I'm not, but my daughter is. And, you know, there are a lot of kids out there that are
because it's easy to make, it takes laundry detergent and a couple other chemicals, but
there are also kits available in the toy store.
>> Correct.
>> There's a chemical in some of those kits that parents need to be aware of.
>> That's right. It's called boron, B O R O N, and that is a chemical that in higher
doses may not be safe for children. It's not regulated in other parts of the world. So
if it's manufactured in other countries and is imported into the United States, it may
have higher than normal levels of boron, and that can be unsafe. We know that if boron
is ingested, it can cause nausea and vomiting. There is some question about reproductive
health in people as they age if they've had high levels of boron exposure as children.
The other thing that we've seen that our pediatrician colleagues have shared with us is that they
sometimes see burn like rashes on children's hands and their forearms, anyplace lots of
slime has touched.
>> And these are things, like you said, we see them here at Penn State Health.
>> Yes, that's right.
>> We see them in our emergency department. We see kids who have swallowed button batteries
in here.
>> Yes, we do.
>> So we're not talking in the abstract.
>> No, no. I was speaking with a colleague yesterday, and she shared with me that on
average once a month we see kiddos here who have swallowed a button battery and are in
trouble and need some kind of surgery to remove it.
>> So there are a lot of products out there that have a high amount of lead content.
>> Yes.
>> And fortunately a lot of those have been recalled.
>> They have.
>> But are there, are there certain ones, certain types of items that we should watch
for?
>> So I would say all lead is not good for children. So if you're looking to purchase
something, it's a good idea to always look at the table of whatever it is you're buying,
to be sure that it doesn't list lead as a part of the chemical makeup, or a part of
the manufacturing makeup of the toy.
>> And we'll share some links, including two links to some lists of recalled products that
include high levels of lead and some other things. So our emphasis so far has been on
younger children.
>> Yes.
>> But we know that there are dangers out there for older kids as well, especially those
who crave action and playing outside on bikes and scooters.
>> Are adrenaline junkies.
>> Exactly. How do we address some of those?
>> So the biggest, the most common injuries we see in pediatric trauma with any child
under the age of 18 are injuries to the brain and injuries to bones. So we want to, we want
to protect your brain, our kids' brains. So if you are buying a toy that has wheels or
goes fast, please buy the helmet to go with it. For example, this is a bike helmet. You
can buy them at many large retail stores for under $15. You want to make sure it's fitted
correctly, and there are instructions on the helmet packaging to tell you how to, how to
apply it safely. And we say every time. If your child is going out on a bike, your child
needs to have the helmet on.
>> It's about forming the habit.
>> Right, right.
>> And where it comes to a helmet like this, I've also seen in those instructions that
if a child takes a spill and the helmet impacts the ground, it's probably time to get a new
one.
>> That's right. So I'm a mom of one of those adrenaline junky kids that we talk about.
And I have memories when he first learned to ride a bike, he'd put his helmet on, and
he'd get two blocks down the street and take it off. And I'd see him. And when he'd come
back, I had to pull out the mom hat and there had to be a consequence. So he got in the
habit. He understood that no, no helmet meant no bike.
>> And here's my son's bike helmet. Now, that's actually not true, but this is an example
of a helmet we might use for sports and that type of thing.
>> For sports, especially winter sports. So this time of year, as it gets colder, we're
going to see children out on ski slopes and on hills, and they're going to sled, and they're
going to ice skate and snowboard. And again, when you go fast down an icy, snowy hill,
you're not always in control of whatever it is you're riding on. So you want to be sure
that you protect your brain. Because brain injuries are, many times, not reversible.
>> Let me play devil's advocate.
>> Sure.
>> Pretend I'm a teen and say, "come on, mom, that's not going to happen to me." Is that
a common attitude?
>> All the time. We see it all the time. Teenagers have a complete inability to understand the
consequences of risky behavior. That's just how their brains work as teenagers. As they
age and get into their 20s, that executive functioning comes. But most teens do not have
that executive functioning ability at 14, 15, 16, 17. So we talk a lot about thinking
through the consequences of your behavior. Think it through. Talk me through. What could
happen? What could go wrong? Yes, it sounds like Debbie Downer. Yes, it sounds like a
nagging parent. But we're teaching our children to then think through consequences of their
actions.
>> You're watching Ask Us Anything About Toy Safety from Penn State Children's Hospital.
I'm Scott Gilbert, alongside Amy Bollinger. We welcome your questions. Just add them to
the comment field. And also, we hope if you find this content important and helpful, as
we hope you do, that you'll share it on your Facebook page, or even tag a friend in the
comments section, maybe somebody who has some children or grandchildren that they're buying
for this holiday season. And we're talking about fun outside, some risk taking. I think
of various vehicles children like to use; bicycles, scooters. There's also hoverboards.
>> Yes.
>> Hoverboards have gotten some bad press.
>> They have.
>> And, in part, that's deservedly so.
>> Yes, we have seen, in our experience here at the Trauma Center, we have seen children
who have become very critically injured, and some who have died because of unsafe hoverboards.
The issue for hoverboards are twofold. The first issue is they have to be plugged in
to charge the battery. And some of those hoverboards' batteries have caught fire. And then typically
they're charged, they charge overnight. So a family plugs the hoverboard in, goes to
sleep, the battery overheats catches fire and the house catches fire. And that's, that
has deadly consequences.
>> So do your research online.
>> Yes.
>> Check the recall list.
>> Look at the, look at the recall list. Make sure that you're buying a hoverboard that
has not been recalled.
>> Because I imagine, especially if you go on Craigslist or something and buy a hoverboard
there that's been used, that's a great way to get rid of one that's been recalled.
>> Correct. And, you know, for all intents and purposes, you don't always know what you're
buying when you buy something on a site like Craigslist. You have to be extra cautious
if you choose to do that.
>> So, as we wrap things up here, I want to kind of take it back to something you said
earlier on. And that is, we're not trying to tell kids to not have fun, right?
>> Right, right.
>> I mean, we realize toys are about fun. The holiday season is about fun. We're not
trying to be all bah humbug.
>> Correct.
>> But we are trying to keep people safe.
>> Correct. My kids go sledding. My kids do fun stuff in the wintertime.
>> You let them out of the house.
>> I do. And I do not put them in bubble wrap, although they might tell you otherwise. I
do let them out of the house. But you have to know what the risks are. You know, it's
our job as parents to protect our kids when they can't necessarily do the right thing
to protect themselves. That comes with age. With age comes wisdom, right? So we know that
if we can give them those skills now, teach them what they need to know to be safe, protect
them until they have the wisdom, they're going to be safer, and hopefully not come to the
trauma center.
>> And hopefully parents will make some great buying decisions based on the advice you've
provided today. Thanks very much.
>> I hope so.
>> Appreciate your time. Amy Bollinger. She is manager of the Pediatric Trauma and Injury
Prevention Program here at Penn State Children's Hospital. We thank you for your time, and
we thank you for watching Ask Us Anything About... Toy Safety from Penn State Health.