It’s nearly impossible to know everything there is to know about choosing safe toys. As hard as we might try, there are just too many toys and too many possible dangers. What was once a joyful trip to the toy store is now a doubt filled trip to the unknown danger store. Ok it’s not quite that dramatic but I find myself questioning every single thing I pick up. Moms Rising and Healthy Toys to the rescue. Moms Rising has created a texting tool that you can use from anywhere you have a signal. Simply send a text message to the Healthy Toys database and it will reply with their tested rating of that toy (if it’s in there). No more guessing and returning.
SMS Text healthytoys [toy name] to 41411
and we’ll reply instantly with the results from healthytoys.org
The Joy is back in toy shopping! Thank you Moms Rising!
SMS text wiz? Try a more complex search:
- Text “healthytoys [high/med/low] [toy name]” to 41411 — to limit your search results to only those toys with a high, med, or low toxins rating — e.g. “healthytoys low slinky” will only return the Slinky that got a “low toxins” test rating by HealthyToys.org.
- Text “healthytoys [retailer]” to 41411 — to search for toys sold by a particular retailer — e.g. “healthytoys low costco” will return the toys sold at Costco that got a “low toxins” test rating by HealthyToys.org.
- Text “healthytoys ” to 41411 — to search for toys with that term in their name, description, brand, or retailer. In other words, you can search not only for a toy name but also for Costco, or Leap Frog, or bracelet, or fuzzy, or rattle, or Spider-man, or Disney — and any toys with those words anywhere in their listing will be returned.
- Too many results? Try typing the name of the toy just as it is printed on the packaging — e.g. “healthytoys Disney Royal Shoes Set”.
Ironically, we just wrote about this on Shaping Youth.org in a piece called ‘Texting for Toy Safety’ with a massive links list to other sites dealing with same. (from CPSC to ToyInfo deconstruction etc.) Here’s the link:
http://www.shapingyouth.org/blog/?p=901
Joelle just tipped me off to your new site, so I’ll put you in our links list for this piece pronto! Thrilled to find you’re interested in same…would love to hear what you have planned for the site, and promote your work on Shaping Youth any way we can. Important stuff.
Done deal. You’ll find SafeMama at the top of our ‘related resources’ links list. Love your badge and widget creation too, think I’ll need to hire you ladies to do that for Shaping Youth as well, with our logo & tag “using the power of media for positive change.”
It’s an excellent way to pay it forward in social media, and as Joelle will tell you, we’ll soon have a spot to hub some of our preferred widgets and links, so you’ll be there for sure. It’s a good fit for our audience.