Children’s Product Safety

Imagine you’ve just purchased a toy and your child is happily playing while you enjoy watching them.

Now imagine that the toy broke and before you could hop up the child put the broken piece in their mouth and began choking.

A happy moment can spin on a dime and become a caregiver’s worst nightmare. What makes this situation worse is that this toy was from a handmade maker and now that they are aware of it, they are overrun with guilt (as an understatement I’m sure).

If you are the maker in this scenario, you are probably thinking now, “Oh! I hadn’t even considered…” and you would not be alone in this.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in the US has the job of making sure that there are base requirements for many products that we see all around us to help reduce these risks, but these laws aren’t always the easiest to find.

That’s what I’m here to help you with. Today, we’ll walk through what to consider so that you don’t have this situation ever become a reality. Five steps. That’s all it’s going to take!

Step 1 - Registration

The first thing that you’ll do is register with the CPSC at SaferProducts.gov. This registration is FREE (I love that word!) and allows you, as a small batch maker, to save a little bit of your moolah when it comes to testing. This step is a quick 2-part process.

1. The first step is to get an account (where you’ll make reports about safety issues if ever needed).

2. The second step is getting your Small Batch Manufacturer (SBM) number (allowing you some testing relief).

These two parts are streamlined in the registration process, so it feels like you are only doing one thing. After getting your SBM number, you’ll basically ignore this registration until January when you need to renew.