Noisy toys damaging children’s hearing

Horns, whistles, and sirens are just a few of the noises that come from children’s toys. Many of them will be received as Christmas gifts this week.

However, physicians like Dr. Katherine Layton, the chief of pediatrics at Peninsula Regional Medical Center, are warning parents the sounds some of these toys emit can be extremely harmful.

Dr. Layton says, “It can affect the sensory neuronal hearing loss and lead to hearing loss down the road.”

According to the CDC, about five million children and adolescents ages 6 to 19 have suffered permanent damage to their hearing from excessive exposure to noise. Dr. Layton says high pitch sounds are the most dangerous.

But, how do folks know what’s too loud? Well, rather than getting into decibels, Dr. Layton has a simple test.

She continues, “If the toy bothers your ears as an adult, than it will definitely bother the child’s ears. Their ears are more sensitive than our ears are.”

She has suggestions for minimizing the sound; “Taking out the batteries so there is no noise, which may frustrate the child, or putting duct tape, or something over the speaker.”

Dr. Layton says be careful with the tape. It can be a choking hazard for the little ones. She says her best advice is to not buy the toy at all because the ones that make lots of noise limit the child’s interactions with it.

She goes on, “If you have a toy that makes a lot of noise, or has a lot of direction, than that imagination part of the toy is lost.”

Dr. Layton recommends parents aim for gifts that foster creativity, sharing, and activity. For example, building blocks, board games, or a ball. She says those are all classics for a reason.

85 decibels or louder can permanently damage someone’s ears. The Sight and Hearing Association has their 2015 Noisy Toys list available on their website. Click here to access it.