How to safely choose toys for babies

[Tatyana Fanshteyn]

I came across a few articles on this very imporant topic. I have two small children and a baby on the way so I always wonder how to choose a toy and how safe that toys is.

http://www.consumerreports.org/cro/babi ... ren-ov.htm

http://pediatrics.about.com/od/safety/a/toy_safety.htm

[Lena]

Since I am a mom of two little girls (3 years old and 5 years old) and I recently opened an on-line store that offers safe, durable, high-quality and colorful products for children, I spent a lot of time researching and understanding the safety factor. As a result I decided to ONLY offer products that are made in USA or Canada by small family-owned businesses.
American and Canadian toys are very hard to find, because the cost of labor is SO much higher and does not make financial sense for large toy manufacturers. Large manufacturers don't care about safety, they only care about saving another penny per toy, and since they are making many millions of them, they are saving millions. They will save money on chinese labor, cheap plastic, they will post an age requirement 3+ to prevent lawsuits and they are done.
Most small companies in America take a lot of pride in their work and provide superior crafstmaship, even though they do not make a lot of money and are suffering from the competition with chinese junk.
European toys also have good quality and Europe's safety requirements are very strict. Unfortunately, European toys are even rarer and more expensive then American.
Anyway, that's my two cents

Lena
Colorful Childhood Store
http://www.ColorfulChildhoodStore.com
~ fun, colorful, children products made in USA and Canada