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JOAN IN KANSAS ASKS:
This is my first holiday season with a toddler. I try to reuse as much as I can, including for gifts. Is it safe to let him play with childhood toys my parents kept and hand-me-downs from relatives and friends? What should I look out for when shopping for vintage toys at thrift stores and yard sales?
MOM DETECTIVE ANSWERS:
Joan, congrats on reaching a very fun moment of motherhood! I am torn answering your excellent question. While I commend all reuse, when it comes to toys, vintage is iffy at best.
The problem is that there are potentially hazardous materials in older toys that were permitted back in the day—lead, cadmium, mercury, arsenic, and more. In 2009, the Consumer Product Safety Improvement Act (CPSIA) went into effect, but before that, the U.S. didn’t restrict heavy metals in consumer products, including toys. Today, these either aren’t allowed at all (with good reason) or are permitted in lower amounts by modern toy safety standards (I’d prefer even stricter regulations). Also, today’s toy manufacturers are supposed to take things like choking hazards and sharp corners into account. These weren’t a thing when I was growing up.
Tell Congress: Protect Our Families From Harmful Toxic Chemicals
Those are facts. But then there’s the day-to-day reality of being a parent doing endless risk management. Parents, myself included, often make realistic, pragmatic choices that aren’t perfect. It’s not like new toys are always safe either. So to answer you, I’m going to attempt to blend these facts with your understandable desire to buy less stuff and come up with an answer to your question that isn’t just no.
I’ve been through this too. My own attempt at reusing childhood toys can hopefully illustrate the dilemma—and the eventual solutions: My mom was anti-plastic fashion dolls when I was a kid; this was a sexism thing, not a toxic chemical thing. I can’t name brand names here, but surely, you know what I mean. I managed to get my hands on a few through grandparents and birthday parties and held onto them tight. One day, like clockwork, my older daughter begged for a doll. Not wanting to buy any new plastic toys, I climbed bravely into my parents’ cobwebby attic to find them. To my disgust, most of them were sticky and oily. The plastic had deteriorated! I knew from my work that vinyl toys can release chemicals, including those that make them flexible, as they degrade over time. I just never expected to witness it with my own two eyes—and hands! After that, I swore off old plastic toys.
But not all older toys deteriorate. So here are some toys and materials that are, for me, always a no, plus some that could potentially be safely repurposed from your childhood or a yard sale.
The NO list
For cute vintage items you want to hold on to, don’t play, display! Shelve them like art out of reach of young kids, especially those who put toys in their mouths. Older kids are more likely to understand the risk of playing with older toys. A good rule is to always wash hands after playing—especially before eating. And don’t snack while you play.
The following are things I would never willingly have in my home for playtime:
- Vinyl anything: This “poison plastic” has been linked to cancer, and we know that flexible plastics frequently have hormone-disrupting chemicals called phthalates in them.
- Deteriorating toys: Of any kind—see my doll story above!
- Lead-painted anything: Use a test kit to check for lead paint; there is no known safe level of lead exposure—it’s a potent neurotoxin that can cause permanent, irreversible brain damage.
- Metal anything: Unless I am 100% certain what type of metal something is—and that it’s safe—I avoid vintage toy cars, trains, and more because they could contain toxic heavy metals like lead and cadmium.
- Old electronics: People like to take these apart as STEM projects, but there are too many possible toxic chemicals in keyboards, old computers, monitors, cellphones, and the like for truly safe disassembly. Same goes for smashing them with hammers for kicks!
- Art supplies: Safety rules have changed over the years, and there’s really no way of knowing if heavy metals like lead or even asbestos lurk in antique paints, chalks, clay, and more.
- Stuffed animals: These, other plush items, and even vintage pajamas can contain unsafe flame retardants that have since been phased out for well-documented health reasons
The maybe-yes list
Hand-me-downs
Toys from friends and family members with kids a little older than yours are often pretty new—a lot newer than your childhood toys. This means they were probably manufactured to meet modern safety standards. The same goes for getting recent items through a Buy Nothing group or a toy swap. Still, it’s always a good idea to check the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission recalls for these items; even new-ish toys can have safety issues.
Wooden toys
Unpainted hard wood blocks and other toys are usually a safer bet, generation to generation. Painted wood toys must always be tested for lead paint. My parents kept a wooden dollhouse from the 1980s that, once tested lead-free, both of my girls—and many of their friends—played with for hours. That said, I didn’t reuse the small furniture saved to go with it, including beds and a kitchen set with tiny, metal parts of unknown material. I refurnished it with solid wood items—some new and some I scored through a local Buy Nothing group. A friend with a similar old doll house chose to repaint hers to seal in the older paint underneath as an added precaution. This can work with kids who play gently, but isn’t an option for those who play rough and chip paint.
Dress-up
I’m a big fan of playing dress-up. All it takes is one scarf and a wild imagination. Kids can also raid parents’ closets. Hand-me-downs, vintage stores, and yard sales can help create the best dress-up bins, but not all fabrics are created equal. Cotton and wool are preferable. Avoid synthetic fabrics, especially very old degrading ones. These are derived from petrochemicals and are flammable, so are more likely to contain flame retardants, some banned decades ago for health reasons. Plus, as they fall apart, they’re shedding little bits of the plastic, flame-retardant filled fabric into your household dust—no thanks. Old silk scarves, wool hats, and cotton gloves are dreamy, just be careful about costume jewelry—new or old—where heavy metals can lurk.
Play is such a wonderful part of childhood, so while our focus here is on potentially dangerous chemicals in toys, I want to end my answer to you, Joan, on an up note: Have fun and enjoy! All too soon, your toddler will be learning to drive a car, not vroom-vrooming one around your toy-strewn floors.
Tell Congress: Protect Our Families From Harmful Toxic Chemicals