Everyone loves spending time in the pool during the summer even toddlers. Most younger children aren’t expert swimmers yet, but that doesn’t mean they can’t have fun in the pool with the rest of the family. Here are a few pointers when choosing pool toys for toddlers.

Pool safety is especially important for small children, luckily there are a few accessories designed with toddlers in mind. If a young child will be swimming in your pool this
summer you may want to invest in some of these special toys and accessories.

The first things you may want to consider are floatation devices made for toddlers. These come in many styles including lifejackets and arm floats. While almost everyone is familiar with lifejackets, arm floats are safety devices made especially for young children who haven’t yet learned to swim.

Both lifejackets and arm floats allow your children to enjoy the water without fear of submerging completely. Since they are worn directly by the child they keep toddlers safely above the water at all times.

Along with wearable floatation devices there are also a wide range of toys that are designed with safety in mind for children. Swim rings, baby floats, kickboards, noodles and all kinds of balls are available. Most of these float because they are inflated with air. Kickboards and noodles are made of buoyant foam.

Most of these toys are also safety devices since they help keep toddlers and young children above the water. It’s always best to double up on these items. You can put arm floats on any child then let them have a noodle or two to help them stay extra buoyant while playing in the water.

Baby floats are good for very young children since they have leg holes to fit your child securely and are designed to be very stable in the water.

Having lots of floating toys and accessories for children in your pool not only keeps them amused and having fun, but also keeps them safe. We all know children are a lot more interested in having fun then safety.

Top Ten Toys for a 1 Year Old Child

All of us know someone with children. At some point in your life, you will be asked to purchase a toy for a 1 year old. This can be a daunting task. An important thing to remember is the activity level of the 1 year old in question. If this is a baby that is very active, something to
 play sitting still is probably not going to interest them. A movie would not be a great choice in this case. For a child that is not very active or is not walking or showing signs of walking yet, an outside ride on toy would probably not be the best choice. Here is my top ten list of toys for 1 year olds of all types.

10. A water/sand table like the Step 2 Sand and Water Activity Center. Babies this age love to put their hands in things. A water/sand table allows them to play with their hands and build fine motor skills. It can gives a child that is not standing on their own yet something to lean on and still be able to play standing up. For a smaller mess, you can use water in the table and maybe set it outside. This would be a great way to cool off. For those brave souls, you can use sand. Just make sure you get play sand and they don’t eat it.

9. Every kid needs a little red wagon. I like the Radio Flyer brand. The great thing about this is it is a toy that can grow with them. For those non-active kids, this provides something to ride in, for those active kids it is something to haul things in. An added bonus is that it helps parents by giving them something to carry kids, or other things, in as well.

8. The Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Home playset. This is awesome because it gives kids a chance to crawl around, walk through, pull up on, and sit and play at. This is a great toy that will grow with them as well.

7. The Fisher Price Laugh and Learn Learning Puppy. This has been a favorite toy of every child I have ever known to get it. It has a music mode as well as a learning mode. This will provide countless hours of fun.

6. The Fisher Price Barnyard Bowling set will allow children to learn to handle a ball and roll it. they can also learn how to set the pins back up. Everyone knows kids like to knock things down, so this would be a great gift, especially for those on a budget.

As a parent, I have watched issues on T.V., blasting off about lead content in the toys consumers have purchased over a length of time, with many item recalls pertaining to those instances. The numbers reached very high levels of these recalls, so much so, that personally I thought maybe
my little girl was already playing with some. I was not overly concerned because my daughter didn’t get into a habit of putting anything beyond food and drink, lucky for me, and her.

Approximately one year ago though, something struck me in the thought of a safety issue, that had not crossed my mind, until one crazy day at my little girl’s bath time. I looked at all her colorful little toys, and they looked kind of dirty so I figured of course, I’ll clean them up. So I washed the exterior with some non-toxic cleaners, and then it really hit me, a little hole in the bottom of one, two, three, bath toys. The old fashioned “rubber duckies” or Winnie the Pooh, or some crazy looking pink elephant and baby. The holes were black looking, and the insides of these toys were filled with stagnant water and “sludge”, rather gross. I squeezed with all my might to extract this excrement. All I got was nasty water and some of the sludge, and not all of it would come out.

I reported the issue in question to the Consumer Products Safety Commission, explaining in full detail expressing my concerns. This is bacteria! Today I again sent my report in question to them for further review, and I’m thinking I’ll get the same back: “Report the issue again and send pictures.”

These toys are found all over, in every country, in every store, including the wonderful U.S.A. in manufacturing them. They all range from great Disney characters loved by children to the most basic “rubber duckies.” They are made in a manner that it is pretty much impossible to clean the interior, and what comes out of them could be getting into the mouths of our youngsters.