(This was cross-posted at Workin' Mom blog.)

Dang, can’t kids enjoy ANYTHING without parents having to worry about lead poisoning or some other horrible thing?

I’m not kidding, just 30 minutes ago I had to make a quick run to the drug store and grabbed a bag of plastic Easter eggs for Babycakes to play with this weekend. She got to play with a few when we got her Easter pictures taken the other day, and she thought they were very cool.

By the way, she calls them "balls!" But she also calls green peas "balls," too. Too funny!

Anyway, I just got back to my desk and saw this wire story about some plastic Easter eggs testing for lead paint. Are you kidding me?! You can read about it, too, by clicking here.

Well, I’m still giving her the eggs to play with. I’m not going to live in fear of everything. We all grew up playing with plastic eggs, too, and we’re fine, right? And for as little time as she's going to have them in her hands, I think it will be OK.

I’m also looking forward to taking Babycakes to her first official Easter egg hunt this weekend. She’ll have fun playing with all of her cousins, I’m sure.

What are you all doing this weekend with your kids? Going to any Easter egg hunts?

Here is an appropriate discussion for the holiday season: “Is There Such a Thing as Too Many Toys?”

Brain, Child posed the question in this issue’s debate. Arguing for the negative is writer Barbara Simmons who says parents who limit their children’s toys for aesthetics -- think wooden toys -- are “snobs.” She has found that an abundance of cheap plastic toys actually increases creativity in her household.

In fact, toys are democratic class levelers. Inexpensive and durable, toys are something every child can have -- unlike dance lessons or a Montessori education. Most families can afford enough toys to give their children a sense of plenty. Claire regularly plays with the children of large families living in small two-bedroom apartments or basements in our working-class neighborhood. She has never mentioned the occasional poverty she sees while visiting. She speaks, instead, of the fun they had with this or that toy. But like all affordable pleasures available in abundance -- television, junk food, and Kmart clothing -- mass-produced toys are given a dirty connotation by unwitting class snobs who want their kids to have better -- and by extension be better…

Having a diversity of toys makes our girls more creative. Any fascination they have -- with jungles, outer space, museums, or slumber parties -- they represent three-dimensionally with toys. Creating a small world in the corner of the living room, they build on each other’s ideas, get input from adults, and use toys in new ways. Toys we don’t have, they make. Racing cars need a track and a finish-line banner. Dolls need cardboard houses of all kinds. Book characters like the Magic School Bus kids need to come alive as paper dolls.

Arguing against too many toys is writer and teacher Adrienne Martini, who gives the reasons that Simmons trashes: the elite feel that too many plastic and electronic toys made from China has a bad impact on the environment; that we are falling for the marketing tactics of toy manufacturers and teaching children how to consume above all else.

Take one of our kid’s store-bought toys and hold it in your hand. Flip it over. I’ll bet you a marble that it was made in China. Eighty percent of American toys are imported from there. Much as I like China and wish it no ill will, I find it staggering how far any given toy has traveled -- and how many barrels of oil it took to get it from its point of manufacture to my house, where it will be played with for thirty seconds and then forgotten about. That amount of waste alone disturbs me.

But my concerns go beyond the logistics of distribution. Not only has the travel sucked up fossil fuels, the toy itself is made from them. Then packaged in them in order to appeal to a kid’s eye on the store shelf. Once my brain starts to wander down that path, I also start to ponder how the U.S. has transformed from a country that knew how to make stuff into a country that only knows how to consume stuff -- and I don’t want my kids to think that being good consumers is the most important attribute one could have.

Even if we could fix the global issues with toys, I still wouldn’t buy that many of them because there isn’t much proof that modern toys are more beneficial to my kids’ developing brains that the classic toys, like marbles and dolls and boxes. But most toys, especially the electronic ones, are designed to do things for your kids, like sing to them or read for them. Most researchers have figured out that what grows nice, flexible brains is interaction with other human beings, which is not something that one-trick toys can provide.

I felt like an eager parent trampling the competition to get to the holiday season’s “it” toy. (Any of you braving the lines today?) Except I was not trying to beat the rush at WalMart for a video game console, but online vendors of glass baby bottles.

Newsweek recently ran a story how some plastic baby bottles contain a harmful substance that can leak into the milk and cause health problems. The chemical in question, bisphenol A, or BPA, is a component of the polycarbonate plastic that makes up many baby bottles and sippy cups.

While the FDA has not banned the chemical, studies have shown that even low doses of it “can cause neural and behavioral effects, and possibly lead to obesity, decreased fertility and some cancers,” according to Newsweek’s report. Great.

Eli is breastfed, as the article suggested, but I pump and often give her breastmilk in a bottle. I would hate to see those health advantages disappear because she is ingesting BPA. My first instinct? I turned to the websites mentioned in the article to purchase glass baby bottles (newbornfree.com and sassybaby.com). Guess what? Everyone had the same thought and all the glass bottles, including a $100 package of 12 at newbornfree.com was “out of stock.” Gah!

A couple green/eco-friendly sites via a Google search also were sold-out for glass bottles. Finally, I found the much-coveted glass baby bottle (an Evenflo package of 6 for $15) at the natural baby catalog. Of course, the vendor did not fail to mention the bottles’ health and environmental perks:

Glass Baby Bottles are becoming more popular than plastic bottles because parents are finding out that they are safer for your baby.

Polycarbonate baby bottles have been tested and found that bisphenol-A migrates from the bottles into the milk. Parents are advised to use glass baby bottles instead of polycarbonate (a clear, shiny, glassy-looking hard plastic). Babies are especially at risk as the amount of toxin ingested is large compared to their body weight. Also a baby's organs are still growing and will be affected more than those of a fully-grown person.

Lead-laden toys. Baby bottles with BPA. Furniture with carcinogenic flame retardants. I really fear for my children who must grow up in this world.