It’s the most wonderful, and sometimes stressful, time of the year for parents and families as they pick out gifts that will keep children entertained as well as safe.
This holiday season, families are warned to watch for choking hazards when browsing the toy aisle or shopping on Amazon.
Dr. Megan Martin, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, recently told Fox 13 Tampa Bay that toys with button batteries or small magnets could be dangerous to kids if they ingest them.
“As weird as it sounds there are a lot of counterfeit toys and knockoff toys on the market and in those cases the battery compartment is not secured as well because they use cheap screws and flimsier components, so those pose a greater risk for the toy breaking and the battery coming out,” Martin said.
Dr. Martin warns against buying knockoff toys and advises parents to check battery and magnet compartments on a regular basis and keep an eye on their kids while they play.
A few toys and even some tumblers were recalled Thursday due to concerns of choking, battery swallowing and magnet ingestion.
More than 10,000 KTEBO-branded writing tablets sold on Amazon were recalled due to a risk of serious injury or death from battery ingestion. The Consumer Product Safety Commission said “the screw used to secure the battery compartment that contains a button cell battery does not remain attached,” causing a hazard.
Cubimana treehouse building toy sets were also recalled over fears of battery ingestion. The toys, sold on Shein, have battery compartments that “can be easily accessed by children,” the commission said.
In both recalls, the commission warns that if ingested, batteries can cause injuries such as internal chemical burns.
CreateOn Crayola-branded pip-Cubes were recalled due to a magnet ingestion hazard. Thousands of the magnetic building cube sets were sold at Michael’s Stores and Amazon.
The commission explained how the magnets inside the cubes can become loose. If a child swallows the high-powered magnet, “the ingested magnets can attract to each other, or other metal objects, and become lodged in the digestive system.”
“This can result in perforations, twisting, and/or blockage of the intestines, blood poisoning and death,” the commission warned.
Another increasingly popular item with kids, reusable water bottles, has been recalled over a choking hazard.
About 17,000 of the HydroJug 14-ounce Children’s Sport Tumblers were recalled after the company received more than 600 reports of the rivets on the handle coming loose. If the handle detaches, a child could choke on it, the commission warned.
The water bottles were sold at various stores, including Scheels, and online sites such as Amazon.
No injuries have been reported relating to any of these recalls.
The commission also issued an urgent safety warning over knockoffs of the popular monster-looking dolls, Labubus, in August.
The fake dolls, known as Lafufus, “are small enough for a child to fit the doll in their mouth and block their airway,” the commission warned.
