Hearing Damage caused by Kids’ Toys?

Holiday shopping has already started, but there is something you should keep in mind when buying toys for children.

What may seem like a harmless toy for your child, could actually impair hearing. Children’s favorites like Disney, Fisher toys, and Baby Einstein items that could have noise levels that could gradually damage hearing. According to The Arizona Commission for the Deaf and the Hard of Hearing, they recommend a noise level to be no more than eighty five decibels. Hard of Hearing specialist, Michele Michaels, explains why exceeding the eighty five decibel limit could be harmful to your children’s ears. “Anything over eighty five decibels on a prolong basis is going to damage your hearing.It’s going to be a slow damage, you might not realize it at first, but over time it accumulates.” Usually you find a choking hazard behind the packaging, but nothing really about a toy being too loud. “So we want parents to be the ones on guard for toys that are too noisy. Until at such time the manufactures start putting that on the toys, it’s up to us to make sure they’re not too loud.”, Michaels says. You can test out toys before purchasing by using a sound level meter or downloading one on your smartphone to measure noise levels while holiday shopping.