melissa & doug building blocks - MIC but dyed not painted?

[spughy]

Sorry if this has been covered before. My sister wants to get my DD some building blocks by melissa & doug - they are made in China, but are not painted, the wood is dyed (presumably a stain of some sort) then finished with some non-toxic finish.

How reliable would you say this claim is? DD would LOVE the blocks and I am inclined to say OK, but if anyone with a home lead test kit has found bad things with the blocks (or good!) please let me know.

[nascarbebe]

I personally don't love M&D toys. We do have the tool box and some lacing cards but other than that I don't plan on buying any more. They're just not nearly as nice as the European designed wooden toys. I googled to try to find the blocks you referred to but I couldn't tell if they were really dyed. I've seen some of the baby toys they came out with that are dyed and they look much better than the painted ones but again, not nearly as cute as Haba, Plan Toys, Speil & Holz, etc.

You know, with all the recent recalls I bet M&D is working non-stop to test everything and make sure their toys don't have lead paint. I bet they would be fine. Or if you prefer you may tell your sister you prefer the "naked" M&D blocks just to be safe. They're not painted at all.

Oh, and I wouldn't trust a home lead testing kit. Those things are incredibly unreliable. Your local health dept. or doctor's officde might have a good reliable one.

[gingerstar]

Sarah, I think that I read somewhere that M + D toys are MIC, but they are extra careful....

Here is their letter re: lead....

HTH!

[CawMama]

I've heard that they own the plant in China, and that they are indeed extremely careful about testing their toys.