10 Alternatives to Toxic Toy Balls

Yes, Some Seemingly Simple Toy Balls May Be Hazardous if Chewed

October 6, 2008 at 11:11AM by Deirdre Dolan | comment

This week a reader asked about finding non toxic balls:

Hi,

I was hoping to find some help. My very young boy (14 months) is stealing balls from other kids in the playground. Time to get him one I guess. Not in my wildest dreams did I imagine that this might be an impossible task. He still likes to chew on everything. A ball for a child, you'd have thought someone would be making a big bouncy ball intended for young children that actually wasn't full of chemicals that could harm them.

So I thought I had found one at least five times only to discover that either the product was no longer available, or "green" by heresay only -- but nasty when tested, or even better ... good for the environment, but not for the baby. Sigh.

Please do you have any recommendations for me. Not interested in Crocodile Creek, or the Fair Trade Sports Ball.

I would have thought a big inflatable bouncy rubber ball, or even a leather one using leather cured in less toxic way would be best. Not sure if they exist.

Don't care what it looks like.

Thank you for your time, I really appreciate it. I have officially given up.

- Betty

Hi Betty,

I remember loving the days the gym teacher brought out the big leather medicine ball for us to play with in elementary school, and you should be able to find one if you contact Everlast (1). They sell ones that are seven pounds, but I’d get in touch with them directly. You could also get a leather football or soccer ball (2), or this non toxic wooden ball (3) from Ape2Zebra.

Healthy Toys is always a great resource. I found this corn ball (4), and an animal print tiger ball (5) and giraffe print ball (6) that both tested very low in terms of toxicity. They also review a mini orbit ball (7) which is interwoven and plastic as well as made in China, but that only had 9 parts of lead per million.

My co-blogging organic mom Lexy gave her daughter felt balls that she found in a neighborhood store and that were both adorable and totally non toxic. This is how you make them yourself (8), which could be fun to do with your sun even if he's a little young. The Waldorf Directory includes natural stores, but they don't have much in the way of balls.

You could also wrinkle up tinfoil into all kinds of different sized balls (9), and if you still don't think that passes the toxicity test you could even consider an organic orange (10). By the way, what didn’t you like about the Fair Trade Sports Ball?

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