A nanny has shared why she would never buy four common Christmas toys for her kids, due to health and safety fears.
Christmas is around the corner which means that parents everywhere are on the hunt for the top Christmas toys to gift their little ones this year. Or, if you're super organised, you might have your eye on some Black Friday toy deals or more specifically, the Best Black Friday LEGO deals too.
If you've got children of all different ages to buy for, it can be difficult to know which products will best provide hours of fun and play. Whether you're after sensory toys for babies or educational toys for those a little older, there's an overwhelming amount of options.
But one TikTok nanny has provided some guidance to help parents narrow it down, by sharing the four toys she would never buy kids for Christmas.
Danielle Anne Manton-Kelly, aka 'The Enchanted Nanny' on TikTok, has over 600,000 followers on the platform thanks to the videos she posts offering parenting advice. And as a mother to three girls, her advice comes from first-hand experience too.
@enchantednanny ♬ original sound - The Enchanted Nanny
Four toys to avoid buying children this Christmas
- Water beads
- Marbles
- At-home science kits
- Toys that contain button batteries
In her video, Danielle says, "These are the toys I would never have in my house, to help you make cautious choices just before Christmas."
She goes on to talk about the dangers of water beads, saying, "If you want something that will give you the exact same sensory experience, please use [tapioca pearls - these are edible spheres made from starch]." She adds that water beads "Are literally made to expand when they hit water. If your child accidentally eats them, they form a massive obstruction that will just keep going and they’re also toxic."
On button batteries, she says, "They look like a shiny sweet and if they come loose - which they often do, because they tend to be in quite cheap toys, -they form a massive choking hazard. But worse than that, the damage that they do when they’re swallowed is untold and can be fatal."
And while Danielle concedes that marbles are safe for older kids, she says you shouldn't gift them this Christmas if you have young children or pets in your home. "They don’t break down and they can get stuck very easily. Just avoid them until your little ones are older," she says.
And finally, Danielle says she finds it "mad" that science kits are for sale at all. "These are actually so dangerous," she says, adding, "The stuff that you can end up making with these kits, I can’t even describe."
Instead, Danielle advises buying at-home science books instead, which have safer experiments that don't involve chemistry.
While some were quick to praise Danielle's video, with one viewer commenting, "This is so helpful thank you", others suggested that it's down to the parents to make sure these toys are used safely.
One wrote, "Everything can be so dangerous, it’s about using your own common sense and adult supervision at the right times", while another said, "My kids are four and seven. I have everything you talked about and happy to have them at home. We educated our kids to not put them in their mouths."
If you've got children of all ages to buy for this Christmas, you might want to check out our guides to the best toys for three-year-olds, the best toys for six-year-olds and the best toys for 10-year-olds too.
