COLORADO SPRINGS — As people start shopping for gifts this holiday season consumer watchdog groups are coming out with their lists of most dangerous toys. Local medical experts have some major concerns and want us to be aware of the toy trouble.
In 2018 more than 226,000 people wound up at the emergency room for a toy related injury. It turns out, 73% of those injured were under the age of 15. It's why doctors say we should be so careful when picking out gifts for the kids in our lives this holiday season.
At Children's Hospital in Colorado Springs the experts say toy related injuries are something they're used to seeing.
"Some of the major risks are you have choking, you have injuries from button batteries and then you have injuries that often come from not having the correct safety gear combined with that toy," said Amanda Abramczyk-Thill of Children's Hospital Colorado.
So far in 2020, Children's Hospital Colorado says 88% of its trauma patients who injested a foreign item had swallowed a button battery. The results can be catastrophic.
"A child can swallow them very easily and when they are in a child's throat saliva actually causes a type of charge that causes that button battery to damage their internal organs and their throat. So it's really important to keep button batteries out of the reach of children," said Abramczyk-Thill.
Button battery safety tips: https://www.safekids.org/tip/battery-safety-tips
One of the most important things we can do to make sure a toy is safe, is to pay attention to the suggested age range on the packaging or in the description.
"Those age ranges are really important because you only want to allign those with the actual age that the child is now and not aiming for the future," said Abramczyk-Thill.
Doctor Jason West has done interviews on stations across the country about toy dangers our kids may face. He says reading and posting online reviews helps in the fight against dangerous toys.
"If we are having good, or bad experiences with those. If we are concerned about stuff coming out of them, or we are concerned about what they are made of, or small parts. I think reviews are so important it's good consumerism," said Dr. West.
To help you stay informed when making your gift giving decisions this year consumer watch dog groups are releasing lists of the most dangerous toys they're concerned about this holiday season.
Here's one of those lists recently released: https://www.koaa.com/lifestyle/holiday/safety-group-says-these-are-the-10-worst-toys-of-the-2020-holiday-season
Report concerns and learn about recalls here: https://cpsc.gov/
Safe Kids product recall email sign up: https://safekids.salsalabs.org/recalls-newsletter/index.html?_ga=2.232844572.342161975.1606493406-1112679429.1601586825
