How to pick safe toys during your holiday shopping

47 ABC – As many parents are out and about doing their holiday shopping, it may be overwhelming to see which toys would be the best ones for their child. But it’s not about being the most colorful or most expensive, it’s about making sure they are safe to play with.

Toy-related injuries send thousands of children to the hospital and in order to make sure that doesn’t happen to your loved one, here are some useful tools.

It’s good to look for toys that are age appropriate.

Dr. Katherine Layton, a PRMC Pediatric Hospitalist says, “Specifically for the younger kids, you want to avoid things with button batteries. They can be very dangerous if they are swallowed. You want to look for things that aren’t plugged in for kids under 10 because of the risk of electrocution.”

When going through the aisles searching for a fun toy, keep in mind, the noises it can make. Sometimes, they can be too noisy. If it hurts your ears, then it can damage the child’s ears.

For children under three, they tend to put everything in their mouths. Avoid buying toys that have small parts. “Definitely, if there are small parts there’s a risk of choking for children. One easy way to check if the parts are too small to see if it will fit through a paper towel roll and they are too small then they are too small for a child under three,” Dr. Layton tells us.

Many injuries tend to happen when parents give their children toys that were meant for their older ones. If you have children of different age groups, make sure to have good supervision and keep those older toys in a place where the younger kids can’t get to them.

Besides safety, Dr. Layton recommends parents should buy things that encourage imaginative play and cognitive thinking, like building blocks.