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Kids can have a lot of fun playing with their toys. However, it's important to keep in mind that safety should always come first. Each year thousands of children are injured by toys. Read on to learn what to look for when buying toys and how a few simple ideas for safe use can often prevent injuries. It's also important to look out for button batteries or lithium coin batteries, high-powered magnets or other small objects that children might be tempted to put in their mouths, noses or ears. Preventing injuries from toys Most injuries from toys are minor cuts, scrapes, and bruises. However, toys can cause serious injury or even death. This happens when toys are dangerous or used in the wrong way. 10 toy buying tips Here are tips to help you choose safe and appropriate toys for your child. Read the label. Warning labels give important information about how to use a toy and what ages the toy is safe for. Be sure to show your child how to use the toy the right way. Think LARGE. Make sure all toys and parts are larger than your child's mouth to prevent choking. Avoid toys that shoot objects into the air. They can cause serious eye injuries or choking. Avoid toys that are loud to prevent damage to your child's hearing. See 10 Tips to Preserve Your Child's Hearing during the Holidays. Look for stuffed toys that are well made. Make sure all the parts are on tight and seams and edges are secure. It should also be machine washable. Take off any loose ribbons or strings to avoid strangulation. Avoid toys that have small bean-like pellets or stuffing that can cause choking or suffocation if swallowed. Buy plastic toys that are sturdy. Toys made from thin plastic may break easily into sharp pieces. Avoid toys with toxic materials that could cause poisoning. Make sure the label says "nontoxic." Avoid hobby kits and chemistry sets for any child younger than 12 years. They can cause fires or explosions and may contain dangerous chemicals. Make sure your older child knows how to safely handle these kinds of toys. ​Electric toys should be "UL Approved." Check the label to be sure. Be careful when buying crib toys. Soft objects, loose bedding, or any objects that could increase the risk of entrapment, suffocation, or strangulation should be kept out of the crib. Any hanging crib toy (mobiles, crib gyms) should be out of your baby's reach and must be removed when your baby first begins to push up on their hands and knees, or when the baby is 5 months old—whichever comes first. These toys can strangle a baby. See Reduce the Risk of SIDS & Suffocation. Look out for toys with small batteries or loose magnets Be careful about buying toys with small batteries (button or lithium coin) or high-powered magnets​. If they get loose, younger children might be tempted to put in their mouths, noses or ears, which can cause serious injuries.​ Choosing the right toys for the right age Age recommendations on toys are important, because they help you gauge: how safe the toy is (if there are any possible choking hazards, for example) whether your child will be able to understand how to play with the toy whether the toy will match their needs and interests at their stage of development  Important information about recalled toys One of the goals of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) is to protect consumers a​nd families from dangerous toys. It sets up rules and guidelines to ensure products are safe and issues recalls of products if a problem is found. Toys are recalled for various reasons including unsafe lead levels, choking or fire hazards, or other problems that make them dangerous. Toys that are recalled should be removed right away. If you think your child has been exposed to a toy containing lead, ask your child's doctor about testing for elevated blood lead levels. See Blood Lead Levels: What Parents Need to Know. More information How High-Powered Magnetic Toys Can Harm Children Button Battery Injuries in Children: A Growing Risk The Secret to a Smarter Baby 10 No-Cost, Screen-Free Activities to Play with Your Preschooler

Toys are not better than natural materials. But they are not inherently worse, either (setting aside arguments about sustainability). The thing that makes an object interesting is the range of possibilities it offers. You can do a lot with clay or Lego. But an electronic toy that makes funny sounds when you press a button? Not so much. Take a look at the mess in your child's bedroom. The best toys are used again and again in different contexts: in construction, in pretend play, in the bath. When I tidy my daughter's bedroom my instinct is to put all the doll's house toys in one basket, the blocks in another and the beads in a third. But as soon as she goes in there to play, it's all tipped onto the floor and she grabs whatever serves her purpose. The images on the 100 Toys blog celebrate beauty and order but we all know that that's not how our children's rooms look most of the time. Toys as tools for thought So here we are at the crux of it all: materials help us to think. If we are building and we want to span a gap between two towers we look around for something to form a bridge. That could be a log or a Lego baseplate. When children encounter a novel problem, they first have to work through it physically. They have to turn over objects in their hands before they can turn them over in their minds. The things we surround ourselves with matter. They help us think through problems. Better tools make for better thinking. The link to schemas When we play with materials in the natural environment, we are solving problems our ancestors would have encountered. How to bridge a gap, how to sharpen a stick, how to enclose a space. We must make do with the same resources: the things we find lying around. And so we fall back on those building blocks of thought: schemas. Enclosing, rotating, positioning, enveloping.