I know I'm not the first to report about Mattel's recall on over 436,000 products yesterday. The reason? An "impermissible amount of lead" used in products made between May and July of this year. This is the second major recall for Mattell within a short amount of time {one month}. Yowzers.
This is unnerving to me as a parent. My daughter inevitably puts everything in her mouth and if it were a Cars toy car, I wouldn't think twice about it. And now I might need to.
I know there is a forward going around cyberspace right now. If you have received it, you know what I'm talking about. A few parts:
- We survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they were pregnant.
- They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a can, and didn’t get tested for diabetes.
- We were put to sleep on our tummies in baby cribs covered with bright colored lead-based paints.
etc...
Get the point? I do. Part of me agrees too. But, the other part of me screams otherwise. I'll do anything to keep my daughter safe. And if that means not purchasing plastic cars at toy stores, then I won't. There is enough going on (and sure to be more) that I can't control and I'm well aware of that. So why not do what I can? Choose lead-free and eco-friendly paint, buy as much organic milk as my budget will allow (we addressed that here), and not have tuna more than twice a week while I'm pregnant. Just in case.
Like anything else it is a fine line. And while I don't mind giving my daughter Kool-Aid, other parents might frown on it. And who am I to shake my head and tsk, tsk at them? I won't. I love this post earlier on in our blog's history.
Read more about the recall here.
[photo from http://www.nytimes.com/]
I loved reading (and re-reading) all the articles you linked to. Such good points!
ReplyDeleteWithout sounding Oprah-ish, I completely agree with "when you know better, you do better." There is no way I would justify buying products that are under reacall (or hormone-injected meat or dairy for that matter) if I can choose not to. And that's not posing a judgement on someone that doesn't feel the same way. More than anything, it makes me understand that there needs to be better education worldwide on issues that will affect our health. I also feel like it gives me a responsibility to share what I do know. And of course a responsibility stands with the industries/governments/etc. to make the healthier options more readily available.