A quick poll of the DadLabs offices revealed a surprisingly low level of concern about lead in children’s toys. Most of this confidence derives from dads feeling like their kids are past the “everything goes in the pie-hole” phase of child development. A little research reveals that this confidence is pretty well founded. Ingestion is the most likely pathway for kids to get increased lead levels from toys, although lead poisoning can also be a result of breathing contaminated air. Decaying toys with tainted paint could conceivably contribute lead to household dust and thereby present a danger even to non-orally fixated kids. But that’s pretty unlikely.

So the greatest risk is to kids in the 6-24 month range. If you Santas with toddlers in the house are on alert, you may want to check out one of these government sites for information on recalled toys, but good luck. I found the listings there to be dizzying.

For this Santa, most of the headline presents have been purchased and none are of Chinese manufacture. Where the lead seeps into the mix is during our annual last minute dash to the big box to “fill out” the haul under the tree. (We’ve had terrible experiences at Toy-R-Us and at Walmart. Target does the best job of keeping big inventory near the holiday, IMHO.)

All the Target purchases are impulse buys – nothing over $16.99. So pretty much everything we get is strapped down with twist ties and entombed in a blister-pack somewhere in China. A Sino-DadLabs embargo would leave us with an empty basket. And I don’t know what we’re going to get in advance, so how can I know if it’s on one of the endless lists linked above? I guess I could come home and cross check everything. Ack. I doubt that’s happening.

How is the toy recall going to impact your Santa shopping, if at all? Have you found any good non-governmental resources for checking if a toy has been recalled?