Toy Thursday - BPA

This week toxin is BPA.

Many of you already have swapped out all your plastic baby bottles for BPA free ones; but did you know many toys also contain BPA.

Lets first look at what is BPA. BPA is short for Bisphenol A; Bisphenol A is "a difunctional building block of several important polymers and polymer additives ... Suspected of being hazardous to humans since the 1930s."1

"More than 200 animal studies show that BPA is toxic at very low doses, while the Centers for Disease Control has found BPA in 95 percent of people tested at levels that raise health concerns. The peer—reviewed science suggests that BPA may be contributing to increases in many adverse health conditions in the human population including breast cancer, prostate cancer and insulin resistance."2

In Canada it's very hard to find a baby bottle made of BPA these days, but 1000's of toys that are made from plastics containing BPA line the shelves in our our toy stores. Most people think that you can only get BPA from food but that is not the case. "While most exposure is through diet, exposure can also occur through air and through skin absorption."1 And that would be whi I classify BPA toys as toxic.

Before you start betting yourself over for letting your child play with plastic, I will admit even Christophe has a few plastic toys, we have legos and this ball and tower thing that is made from plastic (they were both hand me downs); however the majority of his toys are BPA free.

How do you avoid BPA in toys:

1. Don't buy plastic toys
2. If you buy plastic make sure they are labeled BPA free
3. If no label exits, take the time to contact the manufacturer and ask them what kind of plastics are used in the manufacturing of the toy. You would be surprised how quick you are will get an answer.
4. Stay away from toys made from polycarbonate usually labeled as number 7.

BPA is not the only type of plastic that is toxic in future weeks we will look at phatale and PVC.

I think it is also worth mentioning other areas that you or your child can be exposed to BPA: Infant formula, canned food, fillings at the dentist, plastic dishes, glasses and cutlery, lunch boxes, water bottles, baby bottles, coffee mugs and bottles lined with plastic, food storage containers, and virtually anything made from plastic could be made from polycarbonate.

My recommendation from one mom to another is to avoid as much as possible BPA but if you can not afford to change everthing in your life the main items I would start with are: baby bottles, sippy cups, your childs dishes and bath toys.

If anyone needs ideas on BPA free items ask me I have tones of products I could recomend but that will be for another post.

1- Wikipidia
2- EWG

Toy Thursday - Eco Books

I am a sucker for books that help teach my kids values about the environment. Last week we were at Winners and found a book called "My Bag and Me!" by Karen Farmer. It's a great board book that tells the story of a little boy going on a shopping trip with his reusable bag. The book even comes with a little reusable bag for your child.

To top it off, the book and the bag are 100% recyclable after your child destroys it :-)

I am assuming we will give it to another child in 5 years or so when our little one is done with it instead of recycling it.

This book is rapidly becoming one of our favorites.

Toy Thursday

Sometimes the classics are the best. I think we all had a version of this toy, most of us probably had fisher price plastic version. Before the all famous Plastic Ring sorters by Fisher Price there were wooden ones that our parents would have played with. Thanks to companies like Melissa & Doug they still exist.

Thank you memere and pepere for this one.

This is probably one Christophe favorite Christmas Presents; he can put it together but he can take it apart and sure enough he tries to put it back together one day he will get it; after all he is only 10 months old.

Toy Thursday

Christophe is now 9 months old and we though he would need a few 9 month old toys to help stimulate his development.

My parents recently got him NooBoo Pound a Sound from Manhattan Toy. He seems to find it interesting and each time he triggers the sound on the toy; he is like were did that come from. (He does not seem to understand how to make the noise deliberately but he will get there.) I just love the crazy colour and prints on the fabric.We decide to get him the Peek-a-boo barn from Melissa & Doug. So far he seems to like to chew on it more then anything else. When I close and open the flaps it seems to intrigue him; again he will get there eventually.
Images from: Manhattan Toy website and Melissa & Doug website.

Toy Thursdays

North Star Toys has been making non-toxic wooden toys since 1979 they are a family run business and are based out of Questa New Mexico. All there toys are very well priced and they are an eco-friendly company. Some of the key points that make them eco-friendly are very interesting such as:

• Their saw dust is used to supplement compost and for chickens
• The wood-scraps are donated to schools for art projects and are used for kindling
• Only use local hard woods
• They only use solar and wind energy

Some of our favorite picks from there catalogue are:


Little Rollie Vehicle Set at $45.00 USD. At less then $6.00 per wooden vehicle this is a steal we will definitely be ordering this one for Christophe when he is a little older.

Busy Boat at $16.00. We were thinking of ordering this one for Christophe at Christmast or for his 1 year birthday. The boat floats in water so this is a great non-toxic bath toy.

Baby's first Toy at $9.00. I find this one very elegant and simple.

Credits:
Images from North Star Toys website

Toy Thursday

If you are a mom in the east end of Toronto there is a great chance your wee one has a blabla. (I say this because I think half of the babies in all our groups have blablas) We purchased our blabla at Baby on the Hip when Christophe was minus 8 months. This is actually the first purchase we made for him, I am pretty sure we had yet to tell anyone that we were expecting. At the beginning he was not very interested in his blabla but now it is one of his favorite toys to chew on. We keep it in his stroller so it is with us when we are on the go.

Thank you Baby on the Hip for bringing in such great toys.

Toy Thursdays

What is your favorite microbe?

Ours is the Chicken Pox.

Since we are a bit of geeks I am sure by the time Christophe is 5 or so he will have a dozen microbes from Giant Microbes. Cost is approximately 10$ per microbe.

Toy Thursday

OK this on is not a toy per say but it was worth a mention...
Over a month ago now we picked up from With Child the Wisey Play Mat. This mat folds up into a bag, so you can easily bring your toys and play mat anywheres. I have yet to travel with it but the reason why we wanted this play mat was for easy clean up to keep the mat and toys away from our cats. So far so good we love it. I have a hook in my hallway and at the end of each play session we fold it up with the toys and all and hang it up. It helps keep my living room clean and I no longer find cats sleeping in Christophe's play mat. Approximate cost $50.

A little warning to moms with dare devil babies such as my Christophe, the mat has 3 little red straps on the inside to attache toys (we never use ours) Christophe discovered these a few weeks back and literally pulled the mat from under him sending himself flying and crashing. He did this twice and then decided it was no longer fun. Even with this mishap this is one of my favorite buys.

Toy Thursday

We recently ordered and picked up from Treasure Island Toys Haba's Discovery Wagon
Christophe has been showing interest in walking for over a month now so we decided it was time to get him a push toy / wagon. Well its a hit, this is the toy that he wants to play with all the time. I hope this continues as it was not cheep (average cost $250), but so far it is worth it. He will also be able to grown with this toy as it should last till he is about 3 or 4 years old. So far I have to say both his balance and walking ability are improving fast and furious with the help of this wagon.

Toy Thursday

A few weeks back I picked these up for Christophe; Christophe loves rolling the balls around, he is still to little to play with the turtle bottom part. I love these kinds of toys that can grow with your baby. Geoff and I however think racing the turtle are fun all you have to do is put a bit pressure on the ball and it send the turtle rolling away. I can't wait till Christophe is older and we can have turtle races.I hope he lets me race the red one.

Toy Thursdays

Thanks Kim for posting this image on your blog. These Water Blocks from Plan Toys are beautiful and educational all at once. If you hold 2 different colour blocks together kids can see what new colour they make. These have definitely been added on our wish list for Christophe.

Toy Thursday - POST UPDATED TOY RECALLED

When you make the decision to only buy cloth or wood toys for your child there are a few items that are hard to find. One of them being a car; once Christophe gets older I will be able to find tones of wooden toy cars but there are not many made for babies. We successfully found 2, and Christophe especially likes the one from Plan Toys.

Baby Car by Plan Toys:

Speedy Baby Wooden Toy Clutching car by Haba: ***THIS TOY HAS BEEN RECALLED BY HABA FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT THE HABA USA WEBSITE***

Toyspotting Thursday

These days Christophe's favorite toy is a rattle from Melissa & Doug. If I offer him 3 or 4 toys he always choses this one out of the pack and sometimes gets upset if I take it away to pick him up or something. My guess is that he is attracted to the big bright eyes of this frog. The recommended age from this one is 6 months plus but our guy has been playing with it since he has been 3 months; however only recently has he really shown interest in it.

Toy Thursdays

I am always trying to find bpa free tub toys. Last week while shopping at Whole Foods ( that I now hate - but that is for another blog entry) I stumbled upon these guys. Little Tub Puppets by Rich Frog, I though they where too cute. Unfortunately the little man still has not shown too much interest in them . I think they may become more of a hit when he gets older...

So if your little one like puppets this may be a great tub toy for them.