Buyer Beware

Just a little tidbit to put you in the mood for Christmas toy shopping: according to cnn.com, toys "remain a major cause of childhood deaths." To put this statement in perspective, though, only 16 child deaths were attributed to toys in 2004. Emergency room visits were a more common outcome of toy incidents, with 210,000 reported. I know we've gotten more lax about what we allow Ben to play with, and we even allow balloons if we're supervising, so this is a welcome reminder to be vigilant.

My favorite swallowing story comes from my brother Trey. When he was preschool-age, he and I and our brother Jay were all lounging on the living room floor while Jay and I played chess with a cheap plastic chess set. We were all putting the hollow captured pieces on the tips of our fingers like long plastic fingernails. Suddenly, Trey gasped and started choking on a pawn; my mom attempted the Heimlich maneuver, but he swallowed it. I was crushed when we had to delay our trip to California (and Disneyland) while we waited for the darn thing to come out. As far as I know, it was never found.

Photo by darkmatter on flickr.com.