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Safe toys and gifts: Kidsafe WA's free checklist before you buy, wrap or play

Toys send around 300 WA children to Perth Children's Hospital emergency every year, most of them under five. Kidsafe WA's free Safe Gift Giving Checklist takes two minutes: age, small parts, button batteries, magnets, cords, recalls and the helmet that goes with the bike.

A grandmother at a low coffee table checks the screwed-shut battery cover on a toy fire truck while her toddler grandson plays with big wooden blocks on the rug, a small Christmas tree behind them

Christmas is coming, and so are the presents: from us, from grandparents, from the neighbours, from the kids' cousins who are six and have very different ideas about what a toddler should play with.

Most toys are fine. Some aren't. Between July 2019 and June 2024, 1,493 children went to Perth Children's Hospital emergency with an injury from a toy or play equipment. That's about 299 a year. Six in ten were under five, and more than half of those hurt (where the place was known) were hurt at home.

Kidsafe WA, the state's child injury prevention charity, has a free one-page Safe Gift Giving Checklist for exactly this time of year. It takes two minutes, and it works just as well for the toys already in the toy box.

Get Kidsafe WA's Safe Gift Giving Checklist

What it is

Kidsafe WA's holiday campaign is called The Thought that Counts. The page has two free downloads for parents:

No sign-up. Print one for the fridge and send the link to the grandparents.

Who it's for

Anyone buying for a child: parents, grandparents, aunties, friends, Kris Kringle at work. The checks matter most for babies and toddlers, who put everything in their mouths, and for homes where little ones share a floor with older brothers' and sisters' toys.

What the checklist asks

Before you buy:

Before you wrap:

The bits worth knowing

Button batteries. Remotes, singing cards, flashing toys, light-up shoes. Kidsafe WA's toy checklist asks: is the battery compartment screwed shut and tight, and are new and used batteries kept out of sight and reach? Save the Poisons Information Centre in your phone: 13 11 26. More in our posts on button batteries and the Poisons Information Centre.

Magnets. Small high-powered magnets are permanently banned in Australia, because if a child swallows more than one they can stick together through the gut. Magnets on figurines, letters and numbers should be firmly attached and not able to come off.

Toy boxes. Kidsafe WA says choose one with no lid, or a light, removable lid with no lock. If it has a lid, stoppers inside should leave a gap of at least 1.5 cm when it's closed, and it should have air holes.

Keep big kids' toys apart. Older children's toys often have small parts. Keep them separate from the baby's.

Check again later. Toys wear out. Look them over now and then, and take faulty ones back to the shop.

The ACCC also has short guides for single kinds of toy: magnets, water beads, toy boxes, squishy toys, push-and-pull toys with cords, and toys that shoot things. For cots, prams and high chairs, see our post on keeping baby safe.

What it costs

Nothing. Both downloads are free.

How to use it, step by step

  1. Open Kidsafe WA's page (button below) and press Download under the checklist.
  2. Print it, or save it on your phone for the shops.
  3. Before you buy, go down the list. Any "no"? Pick something else.
  4. Before you wrap, do the three wrapping checks.
  5. Send the link to the grandparents and anyone else buying for your little one. A friendly "we're avoiding button batteries and magnets this year" saves an awkward moment on Christmas morning.
  6. On the day, clear the wrapping away and check battery covers before the toys go on the floor.

Get Kidsafe WA's Safe Gift Giving Checklist

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