Baltimore County, MD Hello Baltimore County, 30 Nov 2016

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From YouTube: Toy Safety-- Hello Baltimore County December 2016

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With holiday shopping underway, the Health Department has advice on how to avoid unsafe toys.

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Welcome to hello, baltimore county., I'm your host, ellen kobler., the holidays are here and whether you have kids or are buying gifts for children,.

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It's very important to be aware that a lot of the toys on the market can pose very real dangers.

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Here to share some important warnings is dr., linda grossman,,.

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Chief of baltimore county's, bureau of clinical services..

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Thank you so much for joining us. pleasure to be here. all right, and we're looking forward to some show and tell here.

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tell us, what are some of the key things that parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles,. Everybody should think about.

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When they're buying toys for children. well,, there are several things.

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One is that the best toys are ones that promote development, --.

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That match where a child is or maybe slightly ahead, --.

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And promote one of the key areas of development,, which includes language, development,, creativity,,.

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Gross motor development,, fine motor development,, cognitive, development, and social skills.

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Okay,, because for children, play is learning, yeah?.

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Correct. yes. yeah.

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okay. so,, most of the kids that I know -- even the really little ones --.

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Are focused on little screens.

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What are the best types of toys for children of different ages?.

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Well, the best toys are things that children can use.

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In different ways to foster creativity.

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so, for instance, these blocks,, you can stack them like blocks,.

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But they also have letters on them so that there are different things you can use..

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Certainly my grandkids also use them to represent food.

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When they're playing and things like that. oh, really?, so that that's a nice--, you know,, something that you can use in multiple ways is a nice way to have it.

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or craft kinds of projects;. Play-Doh was always a favorite.

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Because kids can be very creative with that.

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you know, toy cars, toy dolls, things like that.

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All help promote creativity and allow children to use them.

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Both to foster language -- and talking with the kid about what they're doing helps that --, but also to foster their playing with each other and sharing, and things like that are nice.

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with the older kids,, similar kinds of things, -- things that they can use to do with each other or help advance. Their skills is a nice way to go.

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Okay, and I always like to give books.

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Talk a little bit about reading and how that helps.

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With cognitive development and language.

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Sure. so, reading with children, --.

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Reading with children, having children read to you, talking--.

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Even picking up a book and talking about the pictures, -- helps foster language and helps foster a love of reading kind of thing.

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And there are wonderful books out there for kids.

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There clearly is data that suggests that, especially for children,.

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It's nice to have it not in electronic form, but actually have the real books, kind of thing,. That kids can play with,.

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That they can chew on for younger kids., but things like that., so they learn the concept of turning pages and things like that.

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How young of a child--, how young should the child be when you first start reading?.

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Birth. really?.

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Yes. tiny little babies. part of that is we don't know exactly what is the point that children begin to absorb that.

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clearly, it's somewhere between birth and six months of age.

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But you're not going to know until you're doing it., so you might as well just start at birth and read to them., obviously not very long. yeah. and it can be just pulling at a book and talking about the pictures. -- "counts, as reading to them." nice!- and you mentioned age-appropriate.,.

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So some toys give the actual age..

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How else can you kind of tell where you're age and developmentally appropriate?.

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Well,, as you said, looking on the box helps out.

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And then also thinking about what kinds of things the child enjoys.

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And what would kind of be the next related step.

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so, if a child can do well with the individual pieces of puzzle.

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That are not connected to each other,, then the next step is obviously going to be to look for a puzzle.

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That has pieces where you have to actually insert them in,, but you're not going to want too many-- you're not going to want to jump from the individual spaces to a 50-piece, puzzle.

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you're, going to want to go to a 10-piece or a 12-piece, or maybe a 15-piece puzzle.

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okay,, because you neither--. Neither do you want to bore the child,.

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Nor do you want to frustrate.

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correct. correct. yeah. okay., all right,, so toys obviously are for fun and they're meant to bring enjoyment,, but they can also cause real harm.

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What should people know to keep their children safe?.

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Well,, this is really important. over 250,000 children a year end up in the emergency room.

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With toy-related injuries., oh my goodness!, it's a huge number. and it's actually increased 40 percent in the last 20 years.

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really?. So it's really important to think about safety with toys.

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the age of the kid--. There are different primary issues at different ages.

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So for instance, with very young kids,, you have to be careful about small pieces.

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So lincoln logs are a favorite and have been a favorite for many generations,.

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But this piece is too small for a kid under three.

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It'll go right in their throat and stick. yeah. you know,. This piece is probably okay, because you could reach in and pull it out.

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Oh, goodness!, but this connector piece is too small, kind of thing..

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So thinking about that and if you're going to give toys like this.

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To an older kid to be careful that the family is going to be able.

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To save them, for a time when the younger baby,, the toddler is not around and wouldn't be grabbing. The pieces.

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And that's not just the toddler that might live in the house,.

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But that might come to visit. correct., so families need to be aware of that.

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Children from about four through-- and up, their major injuries.

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Tend to happen with toys that involve mobility, --.

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Scooters being the prime one., scooters are actually a really fun toy,.

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So that's not a bad thing to do., but if you're going to give a scooter to a child,, it's nice to give them a helmet at the same time,, because that makes a huge difference in whether or not they can use it. Safely.

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Okay, and sometimes toys are recalled.

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And you have some resources for people to check on that.

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yes, yes., the consumer safety protection commission publishes results every year,.

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So you can go online and check that out. okay., what about lead paint??

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So it's important to look for toys that don't have lead paint.

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The main group -- most american-made toys are pretty good about checking that. toys that are manufactured abroad --, although there are regulations.

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That say they shouldn't import, lead painted toys -- it's impossible for all of those to be checked., so it may be a good idea to avoid toys imported.

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From countries like china that are painted because they may have lead paint on them., okay. or similarly, jewelry -- for some, children's jewelry has lead in it.

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and if the child chews on it,, that's not going to be good.

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right.. The other thing for young children is to avoid toys that have bpa as part of the component., the plastic.. If they're going to chew on them,, that's not a good thing to have in it.

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So find the ones that say: non-bpa.

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are there types of toys that should just be avoided. Altogether?.

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You know,, probably the one that most comes to mind, is that it's a really bad idea to give a child a toy gun that looks like a real gun.

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For the safety of the child,, because if he pulls it out.

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And somebody mistakes that for a real gun,, the child might be badly hurt.

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or the police might even-- you know,. They wouldn't be trying to hurt your child,.

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But if they think that's a real gun., so it's in your best interest not to have your child, have a gun that looks--.

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A toy gun that looks like a real gun.. So if you're going to do a gun,.

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Something that's sort of brightly: colored, squirt, gun-looking, thing.,.

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The other thing is to avoid toys that have very sharp points.

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So things like darts. choose darts that have,, you know,, the suction cups or the soft tips.

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Not the darts--, not the adult darts that have the sharp points.

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yeah. and speaking of sharp points,.

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I noticed the cute little fuzzy, little craft things there are made of wire.

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And the edges of the cute fuzzy is a pretty sharp point.

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so, for the 12 year old,. If you have a young child in the house,.

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You've got to kind of be extra aware.

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Yeah. so thinking about things like that. sure., I brought this along because it's a creative thing.

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but you're right,. It does-- you know,. You have to be careful about using it. Properly. yeah,, for when it's developmentally appropriate.

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Sure. sure. yeah. okay.. Well, thank you very much for giving us our little toy tutorial. Here.

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A pleasure. sure.

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and thank you for watching hello, baltimore county..

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We encourage you to check out toy safety online and to connect with baltimore county government on facebook and twitter.

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