HOUSTON -- Parents now have to wade through recall lists and lead paint warnings just to buy toys for the holidays. So, is anybody watching out for you before these dangerous toys hits the shelves? Tonight we've learned the testing is probably not what you think it is. Investigative reporter Robert Arnold exposes why children are usually put in danger long before anything is done.

From their lips, to Santa's ears, to your pocket book. Toy shopping is not only expensive, this year it has become a matter of balancing safety versus smiles, and parents are concerned.

"We have three small children. 4 1/2, 2 1/2 and a 1-year-old now," parent Shelly Boyle said.

"It's very frustrating because you buy a toy and the next week there's another recall on it," parent Heather Sasser said.

Here's what parents are facing: Local 2 Investigates found in the last two years there were 101 toy recalls, 22 percent because of lead paint. Just in the last two months there have been 61 child items recalled, 74 percent because of lead paint.

"I've been able to buy her one or two toys, but I haven't been able to get her much of anything else because of all the recalls," Monique Holland said while Christmas shopping for her 1-year-old daughter.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission is supposed to keep potentially dangerous toys off store shelves. But since the vast majority of toys are made in foreign countries, namely China, many times problems aren't discovered until after it has made it into the hands of your children.

"The CPSC doesn't have pre-market authority. That's not something that Congress gave," spokeswoman Julie Vallese said.

That means the commission can't yank a toy off the market until after it has made it to store shelves and into your homes.

Even though the majority of toys sold in the U.S. are made overseas, each one still has to comply with strict safety requirements. But it's up to the individual companies, not government inspectors, to make sure those requirements are being met.

"Are (the companies) required to do any kind of annual or quarterly reporting to you that these tests have been done before the toys come to the United States?" Arnold asked.

"Companies do not have that obligation to report to the agency what kind of tests that they are doing or how often they are conducting it," Vallese answered.

The Consumer Product Safety Commission has the ability to randomly test toys once they've made it to the U.S., but the commission only has 100 investigators nationwide to do these spot-checks.

"We're the biggest consumer in the world and everybody in the world wants to sell to us," said Congressman Gene Green. "We want to make sure that what they're selling to us is pure and is not going to harm us."

While Green is pushing for tighter controls, all parents care about is that they don't have to take away another toy that brings their child such joy.

"We threw away anything with Elmo because the Elmo toys, they've been recalling those and those were his favorite toys at Christmas," parent Niki Rhodes said.

So how did things get to this point and why have there been so many more recalls this year as opposed to years past? We'll give you those answers, plus what Congress, the Consumer Product Safety Commission and the industry are now doing to prevent problems like this from happening in the future. That's Friday night at 10 on KPRC Local 2.

To keep up with the latest toy recalls go to the Consumer Product Safety Commission's Web site. Consumers can also sign up to receive to e-mail alerts the instant any new recalls are issued.

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