Posted on 30th Jun 2011 @ 10:40 AM

It’s very important in this day and age to make sure you buy toys that are appropriate to the age of your child, and this starts with baby toys and goes all the way through to when your children become teenagers; a parent is always responsible for what their children play with no matter how old they are.

Baby toys can be enormously difficult to stay vigilant about, and one of the reasons for this is that babies get bought gifts all the time from people who don’t necessarily have children of their own, and are thus unable to find appropriate baby toys, mainly because they don’t know they have to. However, as a parent it’s easy to assume that those who buy baby toys for your child know what they’re doing and have taken some time to consider just what they’re buying.

Common Sense

However, you are the first line of defence when it comes to your baby and you must always check what is bought for your child, no matter who has purchased it. Baby toys still cause a number of accidents each year and this is primarily because the toys aren’t checked by the parents, or the parents have allowed their baby to play with something that is clearly above their child’s age limitations.

You should be able to use your common sense with many things without even having to look at safety notices. It’s not always possible to check a safety notice if it’s not there; for example, you may have purchased something from a second hand shop and you’re not sure. If it’s something like building bricks you’ll often find that warnings aren’t printed on every brick. All you can do is try your best to look for age limitations where they exist and use your common sense when there are none.

[Please note: we do not advocate not looking at safety notices, this should always be done when they are present]

Tell people about the limitations

Another good way to ensure that your child is safe from baby toys that are not age appropriate is to tell friends and relatives and make them aware of the age limitations for your child before birthdays, Christmas etc. At least if you’ve told as many of these people as you can you’ll be one step ahead and you might manage to catch a few out before a mistake is made. There’s no need to be over anxious however, as long as you check everything out.