SAFE TOYS FEATURE: BEGIN AGAIN
If you missed the Toy Safety post, go back to read it here.
Begin Again, a fairly unknown toy company that makes one of a kind eco toys. Begin Again was founded on the principles of Benjamin Barlowe, an early 20th century inventor from Fort Collins, CO, which is also where the company is located.
These toy makers have 4 RULES:
SAFE TOYS FEATURE: LAMAZE
If you missed the Toy Safety post, go back to read it here.
Today we’ve got Lamaze toys by TOMY brands. Lamaze toys are pretty mainstream and aren’t known for being “green” in particular. However, the company, that also owns my favorite Boon, is obviously set on making safe products.
First of all, all Lamaze toys are made primarily out of fabric with a few small plastic components.
What Lamaze toys DO NOT HAVE:
Fire Retardants
PVC
Now that’s that out of the way…
SAFE TOYS FEATURE: APPLE PARK
APPLE PARK
{Read the first part about toy chemicals here}
I remember when I first got our Apple Park toys when Alexis was still little, I became obsessed. I had never seen organic toys that were SO COOL! I never even hoped I’d find something like that. A company that carries a good assortment of organic toys that don’t look like they’ve been sewn by hand ( though that look can be cute).
Take this crawling ladybug critter. It has a wood teething ring, a soft body and a cute little leaf to suck on. But that is not what kept ME playing with it. If you pull on the teething ring and let go, the ladybug vibrates and moves towards you. Wicked cool! So it’s a teething toy that later would be turned into a cool moving toy that even a toddler wouldn’t be bored of.
SAFE TOYS FEATURE: HABA
Heading our SAFE TOYS FEATURE is HABA, a wooden toys giant!
Haba, to me, is an exception to my “rule” that the bigger the manufacturer, the more careless about safety they are. They are the best example of a company that stayed true to itself as it grew, a company with a conscience.
According to Haba their products comply with EU standards, as well as are tested independently.
My two favorite lines of Haba are wooden toys and their new Organic toy line.
The wooden toys are painted with solvent-free, environmentally friendly, water-based stain, which is where the trouble usually arises with some traditional paints having lead and formaldehyde. So you can be sure that it is ok for babies to mouth HABA’s toys.
This Pixie World Stroller Toy was one of Lexi’s favorites to look at when she was little and play with when she got a bit older ( though, I do not recommend leaving your child alone to play with this).
Toy Safety {In Time for the Holidays}
As we are approaching the most important holiday of the year (at least from a little kid’s standpoint), one might wonder if all those bright colorful toys that are routinely bought for babies and toddlers are safe. I mean, OF COURSE, they are safe! The government makes sure of it, right? Right?
Apparently wrong!
While 65% of people believe that toys that contain toxic or potentially toxic chemicals wouldn’t be allowed on the shelves of baby stores, the reality is more grim. In fact, our government has long since subscribed to the philosophy of “safe unless proven otherwise”. That is where we, as parents, are forced to do the due diligence before buying a cute toy.
It is true that we cannot protect our babies from every danger, no matter how hard we try – we can’t live in a bubble. But we CAN take certain steps to educate ourselves about, let’s say, toy safety, especially considering that aside from food (more on food safety in another post), this is the one thing that gets put in their mouths constantly in the first few years of life. I also won’t be talking about “fringe dangers”, like plastics that are yet to be found dangerous (all those millions of new chemicals, plastics and materials that get made and discovered in labs all the over the world have not been proven dangerous and thus are by default “safe” as far as our government is concerned). So even so called safe plastics are not necessarily safe. Wood is, of course, the best, but wood can have hidden dangers, as well as natural rubber.
What makes it even more dangerous is our current standards for levels of toxic substances in children’s toys are based on a 180 pound adult male. As you can imagine that makes a huge difference when the same amount of toxins is ingested by a 20 pound infant whose body and brain are developing and don’t have the same capability of processing toxins.
The issue also comes in when these toxins “interact” in our body and create different reactions all together than they would if they were simply ingested alone.
I would like to list all the common dangers, as well as the materials that are considered somewhat safe, ways to find out what is in your toys, hidden dangers of “safe” materials to watch out for, and finally a list of companies that are committed to making toy safety a priority and have been found to be more consciences and safer than others. What I will NOT cover is the physical danger of toys, like making sure they are age appropriate, can’t be choked on, as well as can’t cause bodily harm. Those are more common sense things.
New Kiddy USA City’n Move: Stroller Feature + Giveaway
Continuing our stroller feature, I bring to you new-to-USA Kiddy City’n Move, a well-priced lightweight umbrella stroller with features that rival its more expensive competitors.
We have been awaiting the American release of this stroller ever since last year and finally it is here and it couldn’t be better. We got to test drive it pretty well during our trip to Disney.
Let me go over the stats and features, as well as give my personal opinion from weeks of use.
Carrier Feature: Boba Air {lightweight carrier}
Convertible Car Seat: What saved our car trips
I honestly don’t know where to start this post. There is so much I need to say and explain. The biggest reason why I am writing it is to help other parents not go through the hell we had to go through with our infant carseat. {If you don’t want to read our story and skip to the review of the carseat, click here}
Baby Beach Essentials
As the Florida summer heat subsides, I am planning on making many more trips to the ocean and having fun in the sand. Alexis is the ultimate water baby, and so am I. So the beach is where we both belong. In the meantime I have found a few things that have made our beach outings bearable even in the summer heat. Some of them are absolute must haves for a baby, as far as I am concerned. I have put together these items hoping they would make being at the beach pleasurable even with a young baby and to my surprise they WORKED FABULOUSLY!