Chemicals for children

[beetiger]

My sister continues to buy my son more stupid toys that attempt to be hygienic/neat by replacing dirt with chemicals. Ove the last two years she's given him lots of Color Wonder stuff, which replaces colored crayon/marker/paint smudges on your wall with greasy pale yellow chemical smudges. It has the bonus effects of having a second or so delay between what your child draws and what he sees, which makes for oh-so-good visual-motor learning, of not showing what colors the fingerpaints are in advance so they get mixed together and your kid gets furious, of requiring you to continue to buy expensive special paper in order to use the toy, and of having kid art that fades in about six months.

Now she's gotten him a big set of Moon Sand, which claims to be useable indoors by replacing sand+water with sand+some chemical goop that keeps the sand-stuff at roughly the consistency of wet sand. Yech. Still messy, and gods know what's in it. After the whole Aquadots fiasco, I'm not really happy about this.
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I'm feeling incredibly misanthropic today, yet strangely at the same time I'm wanting people to pet me about it.

Comments

[adrian-turtle.livejournal.com]

The Color Wonder stuff is creepy. If you want kids to draw, and don't want to worry about cleaning occasional art off the wall, why not give them colored chalk?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

My son has never drawn on a wall in 4 years. Occasionally, his marks get off the page and on to a table a bit, but we use washable markers or tempera paint, it's really not a big deal.

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

Dear Sis,

Plz to not fill my toddler with weird chemicals that may or may not be hideous nerve toxins that damage his brain development. Plz to buy plain wooden blocks in interesting shapes sans lead paint or similar toxic coloring agents. Or books! Books are always good. Longer play time, more endurance, fewer potential CNS or GI or respiratory side effects. Also less potentially injuring to you or our relationship.

Plzkthxbai.

Yeeeesh.

[momentrabbit.livejournal.com]

(petpet) There there. She's probably not being intentionally evil.

[lesliepear.livejournal.com]

Tell her Crayola crayons are safe and made right in the USA :)

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

*petpetpet* hey, maybe we'll find out in a few years that breathing Moon Sand vapors can get you hight, just like Super Elastic Bubble Plastic. Remember that stuff?

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

Oh, gods, yes, I managed to get hold of some once and I was dizzy on fumes for the whole afternoon. Ah, the halcyon days of childhood....

[rikibeth.livejournal.com]

At least we never managed to maim any friends with Lawn Darts...

[heavenscalyx.livejournal.com]

My cousin was maimed with a Lawn Dart! Center of her forehead, *bam!* I think it was her brother's fault, too.

[walkertxkitty.livejournal.com]

Not that it cuts down on the potential toxicity (although I make an effort to read labels and discern where the toys came from and what might be in them), but that's why I frequent the toy stores which specialize in educational or intellectual toys. There's this one place in St. Augustine where the guy still hand carves all the wooden parts and paints them with paints that are nontoxic. I love that store.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

I hate to be contrary, hon, but do you have specific reason to be suspicious of the ASTM evaluation or the company that performed it, then? This is intended neither as a dismissive nor rhetorical question.

It does just seems a bit strange to me given the company seems to have been fairly thorough in its health concerns and I can't turn up any information about any toxicity incidents. Hell, IIRC, even the Aquadots were only known-toxic because some fly-by-night Chinese company used an adhesive they were explicitly not supposed to and explicitly said they wouldn't. (Is this sand stuff made in China or the US? I genuinely don't know, but until I track down more info I'll assume the former. :) )

Not that there isn't a lot to be said for your opinions about these toys anyhow. Even if the toxicity doesn't scare me... the pointless consumerization of simple childhood pleasures sure does. And I definitely believe modern kids needs a little more dirt and mess in their lives, so I applaud you, hon. :)

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

I hate to be contrary, hon, but do you have specific reason to be suspicious of the ASTM evaluation or the company that performed it, then? This is intended neither as a dismissive nor rhetorical question.

I'm not so much afraid of the chemicals -- and I am in fact allowing projectmothra to play with the toy-- I just think these are stupid toys, built for the American obsession for sanitized versions of life, and pretending things are "clean" when they aren't. This is a $20 substitute for some dirt, water, and a shovel. And I'm sure the testing of what the eval company was handed was accurate, but OTOH, I've seen the level of unacknowledged substitution that goes on in the US food industry alone. And I know several kids who ate Aquadots with no obvious immdiate effects.

OTOH, the parents I know who are most obsessive about making sure their kids only get domestically made stuff are the ones who recently went to China to adopt their kids from there. They've seen what's going on firsthand and it's scary.

OT3rdH, I'm happily doing a Smithsonian crystal-growing kit with him, and I *know* that'd be problematic if it got in his eyes and mouth. (He's not doing that unattended, though)

And OT4thH, I just bought myself a zentai from China, so I'm certainly not on the boycotting bandwagon either.

Is this sand stuff made in China or the US? I genuinely don't know, but until I track down more info I'll assume the former.
It's marked "Sand made in Sweden, assembled in China.

And I definitely believe modern kids needs a little more dirt and mess in their lives, so I applaud you, hon. :)
*grin*

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

OT4thH, I just bought myself a zentai from China, so I'm certainly not on the boycotting bandwagon either.

As the kids these days are saying, PIX OR IT DIDN'T HAPPEN.

[circuit-four.livejournal.com]

Once again, we find ourselves vehemently agreeing. ^_^ It does disturb me in the same way that, say, diet beverages or Olestra disturbs me. It's like... nature created HOW many fun things for you to play with that work perfectly well? Have your science, dearies, by all means, but don't turn your noses up at the rest!

Both gentlemanly and ladylike propriety forbid me from thinking too hard about OT4thH. *squirm* :)

[redbird]

Have you told your sister that you don't want her buying the color wonder stuff? Chemical safety issues aside, "it makes him furious because he can't tell what the colors are and they get smudged, and I think it's bad for his motor skills" seem like adequate reasons to ask her not to get them for him, and to put them aside and give him other toys if she insists.

[beetiger.livejournal.com]

*nods* She stopped once I told her I didn't like Color Wonder. On the other hand, I'm one of those people who tries to be extra-gracious about gifts that people offer me/my kids, and I really hate being directive about that kind of stuff unless I'm asked for preferences.

[shatterstripes.livejournal.com]

Moon Sand? Man, a big pile of plasticine in different colors would probably be cheaper, and a lot more fun. I'm so glad all this "hygenic" pseudo-creative stuff didn't exist when I was a kid. There were weird novelty "creative" toys but I never pined for them because my mom just bought me... art supplies.

[marrionettegirl.livejournal.com]

quote from http://www.ilovemybaby.org/entry/moonsand-kids-will-love-it/

just so you know i just put a note on the blog - but my dog did eat this stuff and almost died. For some reason my six year old put a handful in her bowl and a day later she stopped eating and drinking water - she was getting sick out of both ends all around the house - 2 days after that - after we figured it wasn’t just a sore stomach we took her to the vet and they did emergency surgery on her to remove the moonsand from her stomach and bowels - she was dieing and if we hadn’t brought her in any sooner she would have been dead in two-three more days. So - be careful.

[techno-goddesss.livejournal.com]

They both sound horrible!

What to do with Moon Sand

[onecrazymother.livejournal.com]

(1)All moon sand that falls on the floor winds up in the trash.

(2)Make no attempt to keep it from falling on the floor.

Moon Sand is the about the dumbest, worst toy, we have ever received. I take all my pent up crankiness about everything in the whole world, and channel it all into my hatred of Moon Sand.

[rowyn]

I admit, when you put it that way, it does make me go "And what's wrong with sand and water?" Heh.

The Color Wonder sounds particularly annoying, since it's not even fun to use.

[(Anonymous)]

I know we haven't been LJ friends for long, but I'm posting here because I think it's important that people know what happened to my account.

LJ suspended my account without warning or explanation. I've been mischievous (never malicious) in the past, but those days are long gone. I suspect this has to do with this recent flagging mechanism they set up, but I don't know since they won't tell me.

I'm asking people to spread the word about this, if they don't mind. Even if I did violate the TOS, shouldn't I be told? This is very creepy...

Robin (techno_goddesss)