By Adriane K. Griffen, MPH, CHES
Director of Health Promotion and Partnerships, SBA

Buying a latex free toy for that very good little boy or girl on your shopping list can be a real challenge when toy store personnel give you a blank stare when you ask to be pointed to the latex free toy department. These situations provide the ideal opportunity to help educate the toy industry and change the way latex-free toys are presented.

Does this sound familiar: “I have not found that ANY toy store is knowledgeable about latex. If they are, they do not post the information so that family members and friends are guided in the right direction. My Christmas involves opening gifts behind my son’s back so I can be sure they are safe and if not, I have to take them away so he doesn’t ‘fall in love’ with a toy only to have me take it away,” says one mother of a child with Spina Bifida.

Often children with Spina Bifida have serious allergies to latex or natural rubber. The type of allergic reaction can range from watery and itchy eyes and/or sneezing and coughing, to hives (a blotchy, raised, itchy rash) to swelling of the trachea (windpipe) and even to life threatening changes in blood pressure and circulation (anaphylactic shock). Frequent exposure to medical items during procedures and surgeries often exacerbates this latex allergy condition; therefore health care providers often have latex allergies as well.

Children with latex allergies must avoid contact with toys that contain latex like silly string, watertoys and certain plastic items like balloons and handgrips on bicycles.

What You Can Do:

Tell toy stores about latex
Many toy store personnel are not familiar with latex allergies. Use this gift giving occassion to educate them. Ask to speak with the store manager and explain what latex allergies are. Emphasize the fact that latex allergies not only affect children with Spina Bifida, but the whole family unit, including grandparents.

The greatest pleasure a grandparent can have is shopping for toys for their grandchildren, but they need guidance on what is safe to buy for their little one. Often health care workers develop allergies to latex as well, so their families need to adjust and not have latex items and toys in the home. When one person in the home is affected by a latex allergy, the whole family is affected.

You can download a "latex letter" to toy store managers. Remember that you are the customer and you have a right to be able to select a product that is appropriate for you and your family.

Ask family and friends to help
“I find that I have to call the individual companies to get latex information and then try to convince family and friends to stick with that brand,” says one mother of a child with Spina Bifida. When family and friends ask what’s on your little one’s wish list, let them know to ask for latex-free items. If they would like to buy a certain toy for your child, ask them to make a call to the manufacturer so that you are sure the toy is latex-free and safe. Family and friends can also be advocates for the availability of safe toys for children living with Spina Bifida as well as others who have latex allergies.

“My parents were always very careful to make sure that the stuff they bought for me as a child didn’t have anything in it that I would be allergic to,” says one adult living with Spina Bifida.

Change attitudes
Although toy manufactures may see the Spina Bifida Community as a small niche market that doesn’t merit special attention, you can work to change that attitude by talking to the personnel at your local toy stores this holiday season.

Every child deserves safe toys.