toy making children sick

i was talking to my grandmother yesterday, and she was telling me about a toy that was made in china that got kids sick. the toy was tested and it was made with the date rape drug in it. has anyone else know anything about this toy? i think my grandmother said it was some kind of beads.
please let me know, i have a stepdaughter she loves making crafts.

[Me2mommy2b]

Yes, they're called Aqua Dots.  They tested positive for date rape drug and they made some children very sick.  Here is the link to more info
http://www.aquadotsrecall.com/

[Soror]

This is not intended to start a fight, but I find it absolutely amazing that these kids of toys (see also: toys with tiny moving parts) are being given to children young enough to actually SWALLOW THEM.  

Where is the parental responsibility in all this?  Great, we blame China because of shoddy materials, but where were the parents when their kids were CHEWING ON THEIR EFFING TOYS!?!

So yeah, let's crusade against China because we don't keep an eye on our kids.

For that matter, let's ban the internet because we don't monitor our children well enough to realize that they're getting victimized by predators....

-end snark

[Me2mommy2b]

My dearest Soror.  If you had children, you'd have a clearer picture of how it works with kids.  Parents don't stuff the toys into their children's mouths to chew nor do they stand by their children 24/7 to make sure that they don't chew on toys.  Not trying to start anything either but we can't blame the parents for EVERYTHING that happens around the kids.

[Soror]

That's not even what I'm saying - I'm simply saying that it is foolish to blame China for things that are equally the fault of the parent.  If their child is obviously the age that they consume things with small parts, common sense dictates that you don't give the child toys with small parts, right?

It does not make any difference whether or not I have children, don't re-label a deficit in parental responsibility as 'how it works with kids'.  It is not the world's job to protect your children from swallowing small toys with toxic chemicals, it is your job.  No, I don't have children, and one of the reasons for that is that I know that I could not be vigilant enough to protect them adequately.

I wish more would-be parents would consider that too.

[Me2mommy2b]

You're absolutely right.  It is the parents' responsibility to protect their children.  That is why a responsible parent watches out for those recalls and does not buy or keep those toys in their house.  I have a 14 month old and I'm VERY responsible for her but ACCIDENTS DO HAPPEN no matter how paranoid I am.  That's what I meant but "how it works with kids".  Before I became a parent, I'd also shake my head and say 'tsk, tsk, tsk, so irresponsible of the parent".  Now, that I have a child of my own, I realize that sometimes it's out of parents' control and I am more understanding of certain things that might happen to the child.  

[Trialanderror]

If it were just about parental supervision, that would be nice. It is rather about parental decision making to watch out for safety and environmental sustainability in everything and in toys.
The whole dilemma is that we want everything dirt cheap, our own manufacturing businesses can not compete anymore unless they farm out production to whoever comes in at the cheapest price, mostly China. Lots of Chinese manufacturers are forced to produce without much of a profit margin to be even more competitive for their foreign counterparts. Combined with lack of safety regulations, lack of quality control and the only Western interest to sell high volume at a fast pace have contributed to to all these safety issues in toys and other products. We - or rather the media that steers us to have new gadgets and toys available whereever we go- are the architects of our own misery.

[tmv]

It is China's fault. Lead has been out of things for years. What about the child that just holds the toys. Later, they put that hand into their mouth. This isn't like leaving a child unattended. The beads are very tiny. One lady that was on the news this past weekend had 2 older children that played with the aqua dots and possibly dropped one or two beads. That was all that it took to sicken the toddler. The mother was devastated. China has tainted many things. The dog food, lead paint toys, aqua dots-just to name a few.

It is normal growth and development for a child to chew on and taste everything. That is how they learn what the object is. Also, when they are teething, it provides comfort to them. Don't attack the parents for if they knew that the products were made with poison, obviously they would not have bought it. We need much tighter research on products before they are brought into the US.

[AndiJ78]

Okay, say you have, I don't know, a 5 year old, a 3 year old, and a 1 year old. This is, of course, all hypothetical. Does that mean your 5 year old can only play with toys made for a 1 year old? So what happens if you decide that toys made for a 1 year old aren't developmentally stimulating to a child who is 5. You think, hmmm, I will get my son something that should help him build dexterity, recognize patterns, and leave him with something he could proudly display and possibly even give as gifts. Being the nature of toys like that, one or two stray pieces are left unnoticed on the floor or table. Suddenly your very curious 1 year old wakes from his nap while you are trying to pick up the remnants of your craft project. Before you blink your son has swallowed something. You think, ahhh, no biggie, just a tiny little plastic pellet, it'll pass, Next thing you know, your baby is in the hospital in a coma. Now tell me, as a parent, could you have predicted that a toy that is supposed to be harmless would contain roofies?

[tmv]

I hear you, Andi! It is also hard to tell someone that hasn't had a baby how labor feels. But, someone that has been through it will be empathetic.

Just curious, anyone out there have the aqua dots?  They do look like a fun toy. Too bad about them. I just wondered others experiences and how many have them.

[ziggysgrl0724]

My 2 cents....I have a 6 year old and an almost three year old....I watch what my children play with, and do not let them play with innappropriate things...however, I feel that if a compnay manufactures a toy, a parent should feel safe enough to know that this item could possible cause death from ingestion. A parent can not watch a chikld 24/7.....by giving our children toys...we are supposed to be giving them appropriate items to play with......are you suggesting that I should allow my child to play with knifes or guns as long as I am supervising them? as a consumer and a parent I feel these compnaies have an obligation to provide toys that dont kill people....just my opnion...not meaning to offend.

[AndiJ78]

They were on my 3 year old and 5 year olds X-Mas list. They have been asking for them for several months and was waiting for X-mas to buy them. In fact I was only a few days away from ordering them when the news report came out. Imagine my horror!!

I agree, unless you have been there you cannot empathize. Still drives me crazy to hear girls say 'oh I have a nephew, i understand" or "I practically raised my sibling, so I know all about taking care of babies" Sheesh, I diapered, bathed, and fed my little brother, that doesn't mean I had any idea what it meant to actually raise a child, spend every moment of every day wondering if you are doing the right thing by them, making the right decision, providing them with the best possible guidance, setting them up for success later in life, or worrying one small decision will land them in therapy for the next 40 years. But I imagine changing a diaper and mixing formula in a bottle is the same thing.

[rebbecca]

thank you all for your positive input!!!!!!!!!!!! and for the ones that dont have children you will never truely know how a parent feels about subjects like this until your a parent yourself.
also thanks for the web site!

[lovethebops]

Ha, Andi, SO TRUE!! You really cannot imagine what it is like until you have gone through parenthood, it is truely an amazing AND scary experience, all at once! TMV, good point as well, no responsible parent would willing give their child a toy that is unsafe (who did not know, from what I understand, the chinese company ran out of the safer glue and knowingly replaced it with a more toxic glue or whatever it was that contained the drug), and accidents happen...That said, I have a 2 1/2 year old, so my dd was far too young for this toy, so I had never heard of it until it was on the news last week. I was horrified when I heard that one of the victims was another toddler girl. I too wondered to myself why the parents allowed a small child to be playing with a toy clearly intended for older children. THen I heard that she had older children and some little beads had fallen to the floor and the toddler got a hold of them, thus landing her into a coma. As a parent I find stuff under the table, couch, bed all the time, and wonder how long it had been there and how my daughter had not found it.(I am a jewelry artist, I still find beads and findings on the carpet, and I have not created anything in several months)..It happens, it does not mean I am an irresponsible parent, just human. Once these things are brought to my attention, I remove them promptly. Anywho, the long and short of this is, the parents are not manufacturing these items, they cannot be held responsible for what a company does, but that is not to say that they should give their children age appropriate toys and continue to keep a vigilant eye on younger childen when older children are playing with a 'big girl/boy' toy. That is common sense.

[have 2 kids]

I am a responsible parent but never once have I wondered when buying a toy for my kids if it could possibly have a date rape drug in it.   The company's making these toys should be responsible for their safety.    I've seen high school age kids put things into their mouths (pens, erasers, etc)  

[laura1977]

Okay, I am a mother of a 5 year old and a soon to be 3 year old.  
My 5 year old wanted these aqua dots, but I didn't get them.
Heres what you are missing.  Kids put things in their mouths, even teenagers chew on things.  Heck adults even chew on pen caps while at work and bored.
A parent is only human, and can only do the best by their children.  To say it is the parents fault and not china!!!!!  Come on.  
If you realized something, you would see that China is also being accused of making toys that have lead on them.  So, explain something to me............... is a parent wrong for buying a toy for a child thinking that is was safe, only to discover that China didn't follow rules, and now a child must be tested for lead poisioning?
Or, what about all the baby cribs that were recalled because the manufactorers didn't do something right, and it caused deaths of children, so that is a parents fault then too??????
We buy toys for our kids and believe that they are safe and aren't going to cause injury or death to our children, it is up to the company making them to make sure they are safe.
Why don't you go talk to a parent that's child was killed by one of these recalled items, and ask them why they weren't being a good parent........  
Last year we bought a life jacket for our daughter, and all the ink came off it when it got wet and went all over our carpet....... was this our fault as the parents because we bought it, NO and for your information the company replaced our carpet at no cost to us because IT WAS THE COMPANIES FAULT!!!!!!
Unless you plan on keeping your kids in a bubble for their whole life, you to one day will turn your back for a second and learn your child has done something.
Ever heard of a child putting something up their nose??????????????????????????
So my dear you are right this has nothing to do about you not having children, but it does have more to do about why all the companies that are making our childrens toys are MADE IN CHINA, and why there are good hard working Americans that would kill for a job in a production company making childrens toys.  Personally I think MADE IN USA is almost a has been.  Heck call your local mortgage company or Dell Computers and see who you get!  A person that isn't even in this country, because American companies are saving money by hiring foreign companies to do jobs that Americans need to be doing.  

[Soror]

To address the rest of the thread an the posters:  It's really interesting to see the variations of opinion here, and it does widen my sense of what it is to be a good parent in America, and yet at the same time, this evades the question that I posed to Mommy2be...

If a toy has many small parts, and is by common-sense standards unsafe for a child, for instance - aquadots - how is it China's fault that a child will swallow those small parts, regardless of what is in them?  That is still, and always will be (in my opinion) the fault of the parent who lacks the common sense to not give their child toys with small parts.

If you know for a fact that chilren explore things with their mouths (and it is a documented fact that many of you ladies have pointed out) then how is it China's fault when a parent lacks the common sense to think to themselves 'Hmm...this has a small part, even the label says it...maybe I shouldn't buy this for them.'?

I'm not saying that I think parents should be 100% perfect, it would be laughable to suggest it, but there are some things that are just plain common sense...and not giving a child something they could possibly swallow when they are in that phase of development seems to me, to be common sense.

And hiding behind the ad hominem of 'until you have a child, you won't understand' fails at making a point, because that is based on the assumption that I have literally -no- experience with babies.  My brother in law has three year old twins that I have cared for on a regular basis, sometimes for weeks at a time, since they were born, so please, with all due respect, spare me statements like "you couldn't possibly understand" or "until you are a parent, you won't know", because it is blatant fallacy...I would far rather talk about where a parent's responsibility ends and where China's responsibility begins.

Polly Pocket is a good example of what I'm talking about.  Child sucks on toy, magnet comes loose and gets into the gut.  Suddenly China is the big bad entity responsible for the magnets in this child's gut, and we have an entire expose of the harmful content of the magnets, however no one, and I mean no one is inquiring on why the parent didn't consider 'hmm, this has little bitty magnets in a cheap, chinese-made plastic case...could the magnets come free?'

I realize some of you might say that hindsight is 20/20, and this very well be one of those things, but I am getting very tired of watching parents (even some of the really good ones) pass responsibility for their children's safety off on other entities when it should firmly rest on themselves.

[Soror]

Aww, my reply to Laura1977 got deleted.  Guess I should have known. :(

[mum2beagain]

My 3 year old chocked on a bit of toast last week whilst I was sat at the table with him last week, does that make me an irrisponsible parent?? Should I not feed him solid foods??? Should I attempt to sue the bread manufacturer because it didn't state on the packet.. WARNING, if made into toast and eaten by a child they could, potentially,choke??

Manufactures make these toys, put them in boxes and write on the box what age child they are suitable for. Parents/grandparents, friends buying these toys use that as a guideline, we are led to believe that these toys are safe for our children and as a parent we check the toys and supervise our children, but ocassionally accidents happen, bits break off, sometimes these bits find there way into kids mouths.
But when a potentially TOXIC substance is used in the manufacture of these toys that is the fault of the manufacturer for buying cheap, shoddy merchandise in order to keep profits high and costs low.

[40smama]

Soror - not to stir up the controversy any further but isn't possible that the US is partially responsible for importing shoddy products? If it (the product toy or whatever) isn't up to U.S. standards by law, then why is it being distributed?   I hear what you're saying that a company can't be held liable for every little thing but surely there has to be some liability for using a glue on a toy that surely isn't safe for anyone's consumption - I'm just not sure who and where it lies when there are multiple parties involved.  

I echo some of the sentiments expressed here that there are many people who absentmindedly chew on pens, etc while working.  For the sake of argument, what if that pen had a deadly toxin in it that became active while someone had it in his/her mouth?  Who's responsible?

[Soror]

Mum, you are taking me completely out of context.  Suing the bread manufacture in your example is EXACTLY WHAT I AM DEBATING AGAINST.  I'm suggesting that parents show some initiative and some common sense and not be 'led to believe' anything, and use their own judgment instead of trusting labels that have been shown over and over to be inaccurate as to contents, etc.

40's Mama - You make a good point, the US and the companies that outsource manufacturing to China are partially responsible.  If they kept tighter controls on their manufacturing plants instead of giving the work to the lowest bidder, the toys would perhaps be less harmful.

With the pen example, I view that as the fault of the company that produced it, but you are correct, each case is going to naturally be different.  

In the original example, Aquadots - yes, the chinese company that manufactured them is at fault for putting harmful chemicals into the toy, but I view the parents equally at fault for buying the toy and putting it into the hands of their children if they know that their children are in an especially oral stage of development.

To me, simply going by the age safety label on the box is foolish, because it seems to automatically arrest the common sense of some parents out there who say 'oh, the label says it's safe so the label must be right.'  I'm not suggesting keeping a child in a bubble (which I have been accused of), but I am suggesting that parents act as protectors and really critically look at the things they give to their children before they do so.

Point blank, simply because a toy has an age label does not absolve the parent of responsibility when something happens to them;  just like you don't go to a cheap parking-lot carnival and put your child on a wobbly ferris wheel just because the Carnie says 'Oh, it's perfectly safe' do you?

[AndiJ78]

We, as consumers, are supposed to be offered some protection by the multitude of government agencies that are supposed to be monitoring the products being manufactured in our country and imported. No one is saying they gave their very young infant this toy. Stuff happens that only a parent can understand apparently. Having nephews is nothing, you may as well have told me you were a nanny. they aren't your children, you aren't faced with day to day care of them, you are not ultimately responsible for every facet of their care, you really do not have any idea.

My infant got a penny lodged in his esophagus. No one knows where it came from, is that to now say i cannot have any money in my home? You really have no idea how easy it is for something to happen in the blink of an eye. You are quick to blame the parents for it, but in this case I will say you are wrong. ROOFIES. Toys marketed towards children under age 3, in the oral stage being given toys with LEAD in them. Where is MY protection for my children? I can be as diligent as they come, but could not have  never predicted this would be in my children's toys.

Spare me your comments. You have no idea what you are talking about. Making your associations are ridiculous. If the packaging on a toy indicates small parts, of course it is not meant for children under 3. But if it does not contain those parts, is developmentally designed for a child under 3, should we not also expect that it not contain something toxic? Far different than taking the word of a carnie at the fair.

[peekawho]

*sucks thumb, rocks violently while staring off into space blindly*

[40smama]

Good point about the carnival.  I do think that parents need to be responsible for their children; however, there has to be some trust that the product that's sold in the U.S. & bought by the consumer be held up to some kind of standards that the consumer can rely upon.  It feels like one (the parent) must be able to dissect a toy to discren its safety for a child when that's not always feasible.

[laura1977]

Okay my question is how do we know how old these kids r exactly?  I read the recall for aqua dots and it didn't state the age of the kids, so I am just wondering how old they were and what the age restrictions are on the aqua dots.
I will state one thing on sorors behalf.  My mother in law..... the witch.  lol.  Anyways she has a problem of not reading he age requirements before she buys my girls presents at Christmas.  She never seems to get that there are age limits for a reason.  So I will state that it is a parents responsiblity to make sure the toy their child has is made for their age.
I will also say that it is hard when you have more then one child because the older child may have smaller toys, and you have to make sure the younger child doesn't get to it.
I guess I would just like to know the ages of the kids that were hurt by the aqua dots?
I personally never bought the aqua dots because I saw it as a BIG MESS!!!!  lol

[laura1977]

oh and I would also like to say things happen even to the best of parents, and we just can't control it happening.  Its part of life.  Heck I remember getting hurt when I was a kid and my mom is an RN who was always over protective.  It just happens.

[mum2beagain]

I was being facetious with my comments about bread manufacturers!!

Yes parents do have a responsibility to supervise their children and provide age approprate toys, but accidents do happen. But even supervised children get up to mischeif, in that second you are wiping you eldest childs nose the baby has found a random piece of your eldest childs "Mr Potato head" that somehow didn't make it back into the box the previous evening and is merrily chewing away on a plastic ear; things like that happen in houses all over the world everyday.

My three year old still mouths objects, it is part of a disability that he has so I have to be very careful what I let him play with and in is case the age on the box is more often than not not a good guideline as to wheter that toy is suitable for him, but I can't only ever let him play with baby toys, it is important that he experiences new things or he will never grow and develop. Just last week he put some glue in his mouth at school, not only was he supervised by his teacher but he has an aid worker who is at his side the whole time he is at school yet he managed to lick his finger before any one could stop him. Now it wasn't an issue, the school obviously uses glue that is non toxic and not harmful if by accident a child swallows a small amount.
Now just suppose that glue, purchased in good faith by the school from a manufacturer who advertises on it's packaging that it is non toxic and is not harmful if ingested, turned out to have been laced with some drug that then made my child ill who's fault is it?? It is the manufacturers.

As parents most of us check a toys suitability before giving it too our kids, of course we don't just rely on the information given on the box. However whilst manufacturers are purchasing goods made in countries with poor safety standards and selling them under brand names that we have all come to trust as being quality, safe products kids will continue to be harmed by these products. A good example is the Thomas train sets, these have been sold for several years and appear to be good quality safe toys, my son has a box full of them. Just recently I had to return two of them due to the lead paint scare, the manufacturers couldn't have been more appologetic; lets hope they learned their lesson and will be more stringent in future. We were reassured that all affected items had been recalled, I hope that is the case as my son is still playing with the ones that weren't recalled.

[laura1977]

You know it seems like you come around when you find a subject you can stir up a fight on.  I saw you doing it on the relationship forum a couple of weeks ago.  You know we had a teen girl on here doing the same thing.  Everyone thought she was an idiot though.  Interesting...........

[laura1977]

Here is soror's statement.............
And hiding behind the ad hominem of 'until you have a child, you won't understand' fails at making a point, because that is based on the assumption that I have literally -no- experience with babies.  My brother in law has three year old twins that I have cared for on a regular basis, sometimes for weeks at a time, since they were born, so please, with all due respect, spare me statements like "you couldn't possibly understand" or "until you are a parent, you won't know", because it is blatant fallacy...I would far rather talk about where a parent's responsibility ends and where China's responsibility begins.


Once again we have baby sitter that thinks she knows all cause she baby sits.........  
*laughing*

[laura1977]

I just realized what you do.  You have a blog on the internet so in order to have something to write about you stir stuff up.  
To you........................ knock yourself out.  
To everyone....................... read her profile and you will see what she is up to.

[AndiJ78]

Not surprised. We have had others do the same over the years. They cannot come up with a good argument so they go on to talk smack about those with informed opinions to make themselves look superior. I am sure they even have a clever name for those of us with kids, probably cows or something of the like. heard it all before.

Clueless. Those who cannot do, write about it I suppose.

[Me2mommy2b]

As always, I miss all the fun :(

[Mozartcowgirl]

wow. i wonder what they did in medevil times when sir johnson's son wanted to play with a few bricks.  

[AndiJ78]

Sat back and did nothing if he died as they had no idea why he did. Of course, has si johnson been lacing his bricks with roofie's I imagine they might have stoned him to death.

[Mozartcowgirl]

my son almost died from a 1986 penny.. that my daughter had stashed.. under a rack that was on the floor.  the paramedics came... and told me he sounded like he had a cold...they lieft.. and he stoppe breathing again.. the penny was rotating in his esophagus .. causing him to not be able to breath at odd moments..thankfully... i raced him to the hospital where emergency surgery was performed.. and all was well.. i was given the penny.. and went on my way.. when i got home a few days later... to my horror.. i found whole stash of pennies that my 3 year old was saving under the spice rack for christmas.. ( she made sure she found a place where i would not find them) being that my son was just learning to scoot around.. this is why .. of course.. he found the penny.  i clean... my home is nearly spotless.. i used to be called " the queen of clean"

**** happens.  kids of different ages have different kinds of toys.. what my 7 month old cannot play with .. my 6 year old can. its not rocket science.  As a proud mother of 7 children.... i used to pride myself on my ability to ensure my childrens safety.. HA!  all i can do .. is all i can do!!

ask ANY parent of a teenager.. how that whole thouhgt process goes wayyy out the window.  heck.. you cannot protect them all the time.  all you can do is your best..  thats it. and **** is going to happen. whether you are there or are not.  i cannot count the number of times.. where i have come just in time to something almost happening.. we all have.  for someone to sit in judgemnt and state that we can be MORE vigilant. omg.. we would be sleeping in shifts.. and constantly doing rounds with our kids.. going to school with them.. wathcing them pee.. play, poop, read, walk, talk, eat ect etc.  
no two children are alike.. zane wants to just watch the fish tank. where robert would have been IN the fish tank.. eating the fish.  give me a break about ensuring companies.. lead.. ack ack akc ..

think back to 50 years.. OMG THE HORROR!!!  Think back 200 years.. heck.. they didnt even have toilet paper.  
we as parentss do our best.. most of the time.. companies do their best.. sometimes.. the system fails.. try looking up and googling. "parent makes mistakes"   we all do .. sheesh.

andi..LOL.. was lead in bricks in the medevil times? LMAO  

[AndiJ78]

I went through a similar experience in August with CJ. I suspected her had aspirated something (he and I were sharing a sandwich one night) as he had this weird sound when he would cry. I watched him closely, he was nursing fine, but nursing more than usual. He started sounding worse so I took him in to see a doc. My pedi was booked, so I saw someone else. While there I asked the nurse to be aware she may hear a murmur as all my kids have them and at that point CJ's wasn't noted. Sure enough she hears one, the doc comes in an hears it too. They completely shift their focus from the original concern to his heart and dismissed my concerns about something being lodged. The doc orders the standard tests when a murmur is detected: ekg, chest x-ray, and echo. I can do the first two there at our clinic, so I head over for the ekg. We leave to go get John from work (I can't do the chest x-ray with the other kids there) and then John drops CJ and I back off at the clinic while he takes the other boys to get something to eat.

We go back for the chest x-rays and before we leave, the tech peek in his little room to make sure they developed. He freaks out, this is what we saw:

http://i4.photobucket.com/albums/y136/AndiJ1978/Clayton9Aug2007.jpg

Fast forward, we are immediately told to go back to the pedi's office as she tries for over an hour to reach a pedi GI. We finally hear back and are directed to drive an hour to a trauma center to have it extracted. Several hours later after sedation and a serious scoping that also brought forth many small pieces of paper (he is my little billy goat) he was okay. But who knows what could have happened. It could have perforated his esophagus, he could have dislodged it and then aspirated on it, etc. I knew something was wrong and ordinarily would have waited for the chest x-ray (don't like radiation that young, would have just stuck with the ekg and echo) but i knew that was the only way to see what was going on.

I still have the penny and bits of paper in the specimen jar. The funny thing is we rarely, if ever have change. We use our debit cards for everything. The only change we have goes right into the boy's piggy banks which are kept hidden and out of reach. The only thing we could guess is when my brother was in town the previous week that he may have dropped some somewhere.

Another good case for health insurance, cost of all of that would have been over $5,000 just for the scoping. Not to mention the doctor's visit, the chest x-ray, the ekg, and the echo that came later.

Mi vida loca!!