LEAD in Melissa and doug toys! - Page 3

[spsmom]

Originally Posted by Mama2Bug

This is bothersome. We have lots of Melissa and Doug toys. We try to avoid characters and plastic, so they were our most affordable option. I agree that the quality on some of the toys isn't great. The play food, for instance, chips very easily. Some of it, like the mailbox, has held up well.

On a more reassuring note, we had DD 's lead levels tested just a few months ago- right after the Thomas recalls- and her levels were perfectly normal. They weren't high at all. I was actually very surprised, because we live in a very old (rented) house and even had some of the recalled trains.

I am looking around and literally 70% of her toys are M&D. We have the play food, the piano, the mailbox, numerous puzzles, the firetruck, animals magnets, shape sorter, ring stacker.... So now I am completely torn. The toys haven't actually been recalled, right? DD's lead levels are good. The toys aren't plastic, but they aren't Grade A, top-of-the-line either. If I get rid of them, DD will lose every last one of her favorites. We can't afford to replace them.

AAARG! In fact, we recently got rid of the junky, plastic toy farm she loved and replaced it with the M&D folding one. We couldn't really afford that either. I used a gift card to pay for it.

Lovely.

I'm in the same boat. I am thinking, if this is really true, someone has to report it. It is financially impossible for us to replace all our toys. i do plan on making appts to have dss levels checked and if they are fine, i will not worry about the m/d toys until there is more facts. but as a retailer I feel obligated to now inform my customers of my concerns. (i actually have temporarily closed my business and not taking anymore orders bc we are in the middle of selling our house and moving out of state, but iw ill definitely be keeping an eye on this story!)

[Nature]

We live in an old apartment that we know has lead paint, have plastic MIC toys, had some of the dora recall stuff, and lots of M&D toys... but all my girls lead tests came back perfectly normal. I was surprised honestly.

[Katheda]

Originally Posted by nascarbebe

My two favorite wooden toys companies are Plan Toys and Haba.

I don't know about Plan but I do know that many Haba products are made in China.

Honestly, I think that I will withhold condemning M&D until I see published independent test results showing what their lead levels are. There are many many factors that can contribute to high lead levels. the last few places I've lived, our homes were thoroughly tested for lead and the places where it was found was in the dirt outside the house and near the playground. If your children are being tested for lead and are found to have high levels, be sure to check the earth where your children play.

[Leilalu]

I agree. And I also love haba and plan toys and selecta. I think we own more of those than anything really.

Be sure to be giving your kids green food if you suspect any problems. Greenfood supplements can take heavy metals out of the body. I know my kids and I have these drinks and supplemental powders often. I think they really help, even if just in a preventative manner.

[counterGOPI]

Originally Posted by gool0005

I don't know about Plan but I do know that many Haba products are made in China.

Honestly, I think that I will withhold condemning M&D until I see published independent test results showing what their lead levels are. There are many many factors that can contribute to high lead levels. the last few places I've lived, our homes were thoroughly tested for lead and the places where it was found was in the dirt outside the house and near the playground. If your children are being tested for lead and are found to have high levels, be sure to check the earth where your children play.

believe me we did check that and psent the $300 for our inspector to test EVERYTHING insdie and outside our home!

[MommyErin]

Originally Posted by sbgrace

I'm saying this as a parent of a child with a metabolic condition whose had every metabolic test imaginable I think and I've read a gazillion medical journals on metabolic conditions and I've never seen chelation and looking for metals mentioned. Nor have I ever seen this for lead testing from a traditional medical approach. I am not saying the doctor you saw isn't right for your child. I'm just really curious about a metabolic doctor ordering this type of testing and for what metabolic condition?

My son has been diagnosed on the Autism spectrum so he sees a practicioner who specializes in metabolic disorders (my son had leaky gut, a low functioning liver, and a dairy issue). She is a DAN! (Defeat Autism Now) doctor and all of this is part of the DAN! approach to curing or at least lessening autism. He's been on a casein free diet for a year now and on an extensive supplement regime as well. So now we're addressing the metals since his liver is functioning well now and the caseinmorphine is under control and his magnesium levels have returned to close to normal. So the test wasn't for the metabolic disorders. It was to address some other issues related to the metabolic disorders.

It's pretty cool. Most people can't tell my son is autistic anymore. He speaks well, is loving, responsive, and follows directions. He has also developed a killer sense of humor. Most people just think he has a communication disorder, as his speech is about a year behind his chronological age.

Weird and Wild Stuff ...

[Sassenach280]

I have a bunch of those Household Lead Check sticks and after seeing this thread, I tested my DD's Melissa and Doug toys and the tests came back negative for lead, so I don't know... I'm not too worried about it now. She just received the Melissa and Doug food for her birthday and has a bunch of puzzles and a train and according to the test sticks, they're all fine.

[Tofu the Geek]

Originally Posted by Sassenach280

I have a bunch of those Household Lead Check sticks and after seeing this thread, I tested my DD's Melissa and Doug toys and the tests came back negative for lead, so I don't know... I'm not too worried about it now. She just received the Melissa and Doug food for her birthday and has a bunch of puzzles and a train and according to the test sticks, they're all fine.

Apparently the home lead test kits aren't reliable Someone posted these links in another thread

http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/prerel/prhtml08/08038.html
http://www.thingamababy.com/baby/200...adtesting.html

From the first link

Based on the study consumers should not use lead test kits to evaluate consumer products for potential lead hazards.

[counterGOPI]

: i was just about to say the same thing. i tested things i KNEW had lead with those thingsand they came back negative :

[dillonandmarasmom]

Originally Posted by counterGOPI

my dd had high lead levels a year ago and we did eveything we could, even hired a lead inspector and he found nothing in our house.but her levels werent going down.
then from something i heard somewhere and just an odd gut feeling i got rid of all our MELISSA AND DOUG TOYS. that is the only thing i changed and removed from our home. we went back in and her lead level dropped to 3 she was in the clear!!! i thought maybe it was just a coincidence but then my friend's dd had high lead levels, she too only removed melissa and doug toys from her home and VOILA! lead levels dropped to the safe/normal range.
NOW, a diferent friend of mine went to her local tv station b/c they had an expensive lead testing machine and she brought a few toys including MELISSA AND DOUG and what do you know- trace amounts of lead were found!
now knowing it's not just a coincidence I felt like I should let everyone know!!!

ETA:
my friend runs a local oy store and melisa and doug ere trying to get her to carry their toys. she questioned them aboutthe safety of their paint and all they said was "we've had no compliants"
also i called and e-mailed them at least 20 times and they neevr once got back to me

not too surprised. m&d is made in china. not all wooden toys are truly natural, kwim? i have several m&d items from my sis and mil. from what i understand, the trace amounts are below the 'allowable' according to u.s. guidelines. we've slowly weeded out anything made in china and what we do purchase new (other than legos) is typically unpainted & wooden. i stick to plan toys or selecta.
yeah, this whole lead discovery sucks, but it may also have a silver lining. i'll bet many mainstream folk will now look to safer, more natural products, too. that can't be bad.

sorry about your kiddo. glad you figured it out.

[boheime]

We got rid of all of the painted M&D toys we had a long time ago because the quality just wasn't there. The only thing we kept was a set of standard unit blocks. Our oldest children are now 5 and 3 and needed more than the one set to build things. We bought a second set for dd's birthday so that they could have more blocks to build with. After we were playing with the blocks for a while, I saw what I thought was paint dripped on some of the blocks. On closer inspection, I realized that there were actually cuts into the blocks that had been filled with wood putty. I called M&D and was told it was fine. Um...I didn't pay for blocks that had been cut and filled in. I won't buy M&D again.

[mercy589]

subbing... please post when the news station has results up

and, fwiw, I havent had a good feeling about MandD all along, their paint chipping so easy seems shoddy

[wife&mommy]

ugh... not hat i wanted to hear!!

[wife&mommy]

ugh... not what i wanted to hear!!

[sora]

Originally Posted by rootzdawta

Good question! I'd love to see an answer.

Shoot, at least the paint doesn't chip off the plastic toys I have.

I have a Bee Bop band by parents. My baby was sucking on the drumstick and I thought it would be fine since it is just plastic. Later I found that the paint chipped off and she ate it! I was really upset. Do you know what's the impact on my baby's health? I'm still upset.

Initially I wanted to buy only natural toys, but I decided that we really can't get away from plastics in our living. I ended up having so many plastic toys and I'm paying the price for it!

[BookGoddess]

Originally Posted by gool0005

Honestly, I think that I will withhold condemning M&D until I see published independent test results showing what their lead levels are. There are many many factors that can contribute to high lead levels. the last few places I've lived, our homes were thoroughly tested for lead and the places where it was found was in the dirt outside the house and near the playground. If your children are being tested for lead and are found to have high levels, be sure to check the earth where your children play.

:

We have several M&D wooden puzzles. I'm going to hold onto them until I get more information. DD has been tested for lead twice and each time she tested in the normal range.

[counterGOPI]

Originally Posted by BookGoddess

:

We have several M&D wooden puzzles. I'm going to hold onto them until I get more information. DD has been tested for lead twice and each time she tested in the normal range.

i am just sending out my message ladies to everyone so that you don't have ot go through what we went through, take it as you will. : if you wish to ignore it so be it.

ETA: i don't mean that in a neagtive way,im preggo and hormonal sorry! i just can't fathom trusting such a company upon hearing my news, especialy since they come out of china and have questionable labor in the 1st place.

[almadianna]

I think that waiting to condemn something until we get independent test results is part of that "oh well it messed up a whole lot of people now lets do something about it" trend. THe same trend with pharmacueticals, with toys, with everything.

If we waited for test results on the benefits of breastfeeding I wouldnt have been breastfed as most of the kids who are over 15-18 years of age.

I thank the OP for posting this info and trying to warn us on something that many of us have already thought true for a while.

[pradiata]

Originally Posted by Ruthla

So is plastic safer than wood with lead paint?

I think the answer is "NO".

I've been reading lately that there are some loopholes regarding safe lead levels in plastics. Some plastics will have many times the safe levels of lead in them because the toys were tested for "migration" levels (how much lead seeps out of the plastic simply by being in surface contact with something, often vinegar for the tests) rather than "total lead tests" (where they scrape the plastic, melt it down and see how much actual lead it contains). When tested for total lead many more toys fail toxicity testing, such as Mega Blocks as discovered recently in Canada.

Lead is used to color red and yellow plastics. It's cheaper than safer alternatives, so I imagine that very high quality plastic (oxymoron!) would be less likely to have lead in it. It seems like Legos and Playmobil may be safer because of their higher quality, but I would like to know more.

Plus plastics have all their own nasty stuff in addition to whatever lead may be there. In one way, at least lead is in a somewhat natural form and it's toxicity is known and understood, where as all the bizarre side effects of plastic exposure are only just starting to be understood.

Toys don't have to be lead-free to be considered non-toxic, they just have to have low levels of lead (600 parts per million). So if our children have many toys with low (ie, "safe") lead levels, doesn't it seem like that could eventually all add up to toxic levels?

I think I'm going to ditch everything that isn't made of untreated natural materials in our home! I spend a fortune on organically grown food just to have my child poisoned by TOY manufacturers? : Are these people monsters?

[meandk0610]

our m&d puzzles say made in taiwan. so you think they still might have lead in the paint?

sarah