non car safety

I happened to notice a recall on MAGNETIX on another site. Since I own a couple sets and have given my nephews a couple more, I looked into it.

Not surprising - kids have been hurt after swallowing magnets. Aparently 2 or more can stick together through in the wall of the intestine.

What WAS surprising (at least for me):
"Of the 33 cases, the children ranged in age from 10 months to 11 years,. . ."
"The CPSC is aware of one case of intestinal perforation after a child swallowed magnetic jewelry that was being worn on the child’s tongue, two cases of intestinal perforations after children swallowed complete components of building sets containing magnets, one aspiration of a loose magnet, and one perforation of the nasal wall from nose jewelry."

I didn't know body piercing was big in the preteen set. . .

I went to a few family lunches at my sister's elementary school, when she was in 4th and 5th grade. There actually were a few girls with pierced noses and eyebrows and belly buttons, at 10-11 years old.

I wondered about this.

DS received a Magnetix-type builder/toy set for Christmas last year and I packed it away in the closet, not wanting to have it out because of potential lead (?) and choking hazard w/ little DD. Now I'm flat out going to get rid of them.

Thanks for the post. That frees up some closet space.

Did you know that the recall was dated March 2006?

My oldest son has magnetix. He's not allowed to have them where my youngest son can get to them. If there are any left where ds2 might possibly reach them, they are thrown out. In the past year, his collection has dwindled to a very few.

There are actually magnetix for younger children that are made so that the magnet cannot come out (the problem with the regular magnetix is that the magnet can easily come out of the plastic cylinders). Here they are.

Here is a page from roseart (makers of magnetix) about the recall.

I know that I will not be buying any regular magnetix until ds2 is over 3. At least not for the kids. It would have been nice if they had designed the orginal toys better, so that the magnets couldn't become dislodged and come out. But oh well.

Hey, I do have a positive about Rose Art....last year, during back to school, I bought my son some 10 count rose art markers. We opened the box of one and notice that the purple marker was...empty. I mean, it wasn't dried out, there hadn't ever been any color in it at all, the tip was white...lol. I emailed rose art and they sent me a new purple marker in the mail (for free, and I didn't ask for it). Now, it cost them more to send me that one marker than it did for me to buy the whole pack of markers (they were about 10 cents a pack).

RE: hazard. Pierced ears sure, for boys or girls. But boys under 12 with nose and tongue piercings? REALLY!?! I know Nebraska is backward in many ways. . .but maybe that's a good thing in this case.

I LOVE the Magnetix and I love the Geomags even more because they are stronger and last longer. But I love all construction toys (K'nex, legos, etc.)

Hint for all those tiny pieces: buy a 9 x 13 cake pan with a plastic lid. The magnets stick to it so it's easier to keep all the pieces together.

I used this in my classroom (2nd grade) and the kids managed to keep almost all of the pieces in the pan (except for the ones they stole and I'm pretty sure one or two are inside the vacuum cleaner ).

I've used them with little kids (2-3) but ONLY when I was sitting with them and playing as well. I've done Light Bright with my neices and nephews when they were this age, too, but again, I was playing WITH them.

We used to sell these piercing things when I worked at Claires.

The top was the pretty piece, and there was a small magnetic that went on the other side, to hold it in place. They could be used on the ears, etc. I don't know if they were meant to be used in other places, but I wore one in my nose for a halloween costume (yeah, stupid, i know.)

I wouldn't let my kids wear them, but I know others that did, and I sold some to mothers with young kids for halloween costumes.

The magnetix, we have the same policy as simply. I won't buy anymore, either.