Safety First for Babies – When Buying Books for Babies, Toddlers and Children in General

As we walk into any bookstore, or any other place that sells books for children, we get overwhelmed with the range of colourful attractive children books. Putting the attractiveness aside, we must also look at safe books for babies. What I mean by safe book is the printing and design of the book. Aside note that many books now don’t even specify the age this book is intended to. I guess the publishers worry that if they will specify the age, then only mothers with child in that age range will buy this book. This is my opinion, and I say that because I have seen book from publishers that specialize in children’s books, and they do tell you the age of the child.

Let’s talk about books for babies. Yes, we do want to read books to our babies. We want them to touch the book and feel it. However, one thing parent must always do is not to leave a child unattended with the book. Babies when they start teething they will grab books and believe or not chew on it. As a parent you tell me if the printing ink is nutritious for your baby – no it is not. Watch out especially for the books made of fabric, or hard books that may be painted.

The next factor that may be unsafe for children are books with those things that have flip flaps. They are cool and very entertaining for you baby or toddler, but all you have to do is always be around your child. Sometimes they may come off very easy and the book becomes a choking hazard if unattended baby will consume it. Lastly the books with round corners are much better than the books with sharp corners. The pictures of the books below are the two examples. The sharp corners become dangerous especially when flipping pages, often may scratch babies face or even poke.

So next time you shop for a book for your baby, you may want to consider the above points.

	Peak-a-Baby is a book where the corners are rounded. Excellent book to be introduced at age of 2 months.
	Ten Little Ladybugs is a book where the corners are sharp. This book can be recommended for older babies, but please do not leave your baby alone with this book.

REFERENCES
[1] Peak-a-Baby by Karen Katz, A Lift-The-Flap Book
[2] The Little Ladybugs by Melanie Gerth, Illustrated by Laura Huliska-Beith

Document Release: 0; Document Last Modified: February 17, 2009