CARILION CLINIC PEDIATRICIAN REITERATES CALL FOR TOY SAFETY THIS HOLIDAY SEASON

With the holidays right around the corner, pediatricians remind consumers to keep safety at the top of mind.

SAFE AT HOME: Kids will have new toys to play with over the coming holidays, but it's important that safety always come first.

In 2021 there were more than 152,000 toy-related, emergency department-treated injuries to children younger than 15 years of age, including two deaths. The fatalities involved choking on a small part of a toy and suffocating on a soft toy in an unsafe sleep environment. Many of the incidents were associated with, but not necessarily caused by, a toy. For children younger than 15 years old, non-motorized scooters continued to be the category of toys associated with the most injuries. Males accounted for 58 percent of all of the injuries. Once the gifts are open, remember to immediately discard plastic wrappings or other packaging on toys before they become dangerous playthings.

Dr. Kathryn Bass, Section Chief, Pediatric Surgery at the Carilion Clinic in Roanoke, VA, urges parents to prioritize safety when shopping for and giving gifts this holiday season. "Stay away from small objects that can fit in a toddler's mouth or fist – even something that can come apart in small pieces. I've taken countless small toys out of the GI tract and airway. Because it's very typical for children to put small things into their mouths, they likely won't be able to help themselves.

“The big thing we’ve tried to work on in pediatric surgery over the past few years is magnets. I urge you not to give magnets to kids,” says Bass. “Even bigger kids ages seven and eight ingest magnets, especially those in objects meant to construct and build things. These rare earth magnets are powerful to have enough pull to engage each other and, if ingested, create bowel perforation and peritonitis. If this is untreated, it can be devastating – but the good thing is, this is all very preventable. We want everyone to have a fun but safe holiday season.”