Small Parts
Small toys such as marbles and jacks, and toys with small parts, are dangerous because young children may choke if they try to ingest them. Babies and toddlers don't always understand that toys are not to be placed in their mouths, and their naive curiosity may lead to choking or internal injuries. According to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, 24 children's deaths were attributed to small toys, such as beads, balls and uninflated balloons, from 2005 to 2007.
Lead Paint
Lead content in toys has gained a lot of attention due to media coverage on the subject, especially after toys featuring the Thomas the Tank Engine and Dora the Explorer characters were recalled due to lead paint. Mattel recalled 967,000 Dora the Explorer and other toys in 2007 when it was found that a Chinese contractor had manufactured them using lead paint. Parents can monitor recalls by visiting the Consumer Product Safety Commission's website, cpsc.gov, which maintains a chronological listing of toy recalls.
Trampolines
Trampolines have been popular among children for decades, and they have been causing major bodily injuries for just as long. They were responsible for 98,000 emergency-room trips for children in 2009, according to a CBS report. Children get hurt when they bounce off of a trampoline and fall several feet to the ground or when they attempt stunts, such as back flips, on the trampoline and fail to execute them. Injuries include sprains, bone fractures, spinal cord injuries and concussions, among others. The risk of injury is reduced, but not eliminated, when nets are placed around a trampoline, as they protect kids from falls but not from awkward landings. Kids can further mitigate the risk by jumping in the middle of a trampoline and sticking to one person on it at a time.
Riding Toys
Motorized and nonmotorized riding toys, such as cars, bikes and scooters, caused 25 percent of all reported injuries among children younger than 15 in 2007, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission, making it the most dangerous toy category that year. Between 2005 and 2007, 13 children died due to tricycle accidents, eight died due to using nonmotorized scooters, and five died from accidents related to powered riding toys. Several of these children died after falling from their toys into swimming pools, being hit by motor vehicles or falling and sustaining head injuries. Close adult supervision can help prevent these types of deaths.