paint/varnish suitable for children's furniture

[Fred]

Hello,

So I've been an uncle for a few months now and the grandparents have been given an old cot by friends to use when they baby sit my nephew. The cot is a bit worse for wear and I wondered about stripping it and repainting it (or rather varnish it since that was the original finish). The thing is I'm worried about it being chewed. I wasn't sure if I might dabble making a couple of wooden toys but again, knowing how children like to put everything in their mouths, what is best to paint things with?

TIA

[Nightjar]

Internationl Paints claim their Japlac range is child safe, although the general advice seems to be to use water based paints.

Colin Bignell

[fred]

The o/p is right to be concerned. To my certain knowledge a varnished stage prop cigar has caused collapse and temporary heart/breathing difficulties in an actor that had been drawing on it in a performance. Rather unhelpfully I don't know the varnish brand or even type but the speculation was that it had some anti-fungal constituents.

Get COSHH data for anything you intend to use.

[Spamlet]

If you do strip it down to bare wood, you could just oil it with linseed oil or similar edible oil )taking care to check for preservatives/fungicides first.)

(I remember chewing the pink painted cot (was my sister's first) as I sat in it many moons ago: probably what destroyed my brain...)

S

[Ronald Raygun]

Destroyed your brain? I think not. You must be a medical marvel if you can actually remember stuff you did when you were young enough to fit in a cot.

Perhaps one way of discouraging chewing might be to mix some Bitrex in with the varnish. That's the stuff they put in weedkillers to stop kids tasting it.

[js.b1]

Red Lead :-) Just about every parent told their child they would die if they touched it... not knowing that the child had almost certainly stuck their finger in it, then probably picked their nose or such like (and that was just the girls). Sort of like stuffing socks into the packet of biscuits or eating the flake off the flake cake, then putting that one to the back of the packet. Still goes on of course, accounts, finance... :-)

Some products are perfectly safe when dry, but not when drying - so read the instructions carefully.

Can use useful to permanent marker on the underside what was used in case someone wants to touch it up, or check what was used re any doubt in the future.

[Fred]

Thanks. Many replies suggest that paints are only dangerous when wet, so that's given me more confidence. The linseed oil sounds like the safest way to go. Do you apply it thinly: just enough to soak in?

Thanks.

[stuart noble]

The kids will be grown up by the time linseed oil dries

[Andy Dingley]

Don't use linseed, it's a PITA and it also yellows with age. You're better using tung oil, which is what nearly all factory-made blended "finishing oils" will be anyway. For a recommendation, I use Liberon.

Don't put it on too heavily, or else it remains tacky.

[Clive George]

How long was it since it had been varnished?

[Fred]

That was my worry: that every time you brush past it, you would get coated.

[fred]

Good question but I don't know the answer.

Even if it was just 24hrs I would have thought it a very surprising result, they thought he was going to croak. Forty-something bloke, no previous adverse health history.