Question about wooden food

[maestramommy]

This weekend we got a kitchen with wooden foods off Craigslist. One set was a Melissa and Doug Sandwich set. The other we don't know, but it's foods like a slice of watermelon, a hotdog, a pepper, in pieces held together by velcro. This set worries me. I don't know how the previous owner's kids played with it, but the watermelon is shedding a lot of paint. With all the scare about the lead based paint we are doing our own lead testing, esp. since everything was made in China, including the sandwich set.

Does anyone know what brand makes the segmented foods? Or are there too many brands out there to know? Does anyone know if this toys are safe? DD actually bit into a fruit and ended up with little paint chips in her mouth. We have tried to institute the "no biting, this is just pretend." but she still likes to at least put it in her mouth momentarily to pretend eating. Is 22 months too young for this kind of toy? She's not normally an oral person.

[o_mom]

There are several brands of those. I have one from Target from about 1.5-2 years ago that has the watermelon and pepper and various fruits and veggies (eggplant, orange, lemon, etc.). I know they had a set with a hotdog in it also. I have a similar one from Walmart that had a hotdog, fish, egg, etc. Both came with a small cutting board and a wooden knife to cut the food. Neither set is chipping at all, so I'm not sure what to tell you on that. We gave them to the boys around 2 years old, but I know the hotdog could be a choking hazaard, for example.