The Dangers of Children Swallowing Button Batteries | Patient Education

Each year, more than 3,500 swallowing cases of all sizes and types of button batteries are reported to U.S. poison control centers.

The number of cases where children have been seriously hurt or have died quadrupled in five years (2006-2010) compared to the five years prior (2001-2005).

When a coin lithium button battery gets stuck in a child’s throat, the saliva triggers an electrical current. This causes a chemical reaction that can severely burn the esophagus in as little as two hours.

Symptoms of coin-sized button battery ingestion may be similar to other childhood illnesses, such as coughing, drooling, and discomfort.

Once burning begins, damage can continue even after the battery is removed.

Prevention

Kids under 4 are at the greatest risk. Many coin-sized button batteries can appear “invisible” to parents because devices come with the batteries already installed.
Keep your children safe:

• Look in your home for any items that may contain coin-sized button batteries.
• Place devices out of sight and out of reach of small children.
• Keep loose or spare batteries locked away.
• Share this life-saving information with caregivers, friends, family members and sitters.

Treatment

Keeping these batteries locked away and secured in devices is key, but if a coin-sized button battery is swallowed, you should follow these steps:

• Go to the emergency room immediately. Tell doctors and nurses that it might be a coin-sized button battery.
• If possible, provide the medical team with the identification number found on the battery’s package.
• Do not let the child eat or drink until an X-ray can determine if a battery is present.
• Do not induce vomiting.

Do you have a remote for your car? Remote controls in your home? Hearing aids? Watches?

Your child is in very real danger if you do not guard these items safely, since many contain button batteries. If swallowed, stuck in an ear or a nose, your child only has a couple of hours before permanent, even deadly, damage is done. Button batteries can be found in small remotes, car key fobs, mini remotes that control MP3 speakers, calculators, bathroom scales, reading lights, flameless candles, talking and singing books, singing greeting cards, watches, thermometers, hearing aids, flashing jewelry, ornaments, games and toys.

If a coin lithium button battery gets stuck in a child’s throat, the saliva triggers an electrical current. This causes a chemical reaction that can severely burn the esophagus in as little as two hours. Damage can continue even after the battery is removed. Repairing the damage is painful and can require a feeding tube, breathing tubes and multiple surgeries. Spotting the problem is difficult. Children can usually breathe with the battery in their throat.

Take a few minutes to place a piece of duct tape over the battery cover to prevent small children from accessing the battery. Make sure that your purse and the bags of visitors are stored securely away from a child’s reach.

Carefully review your home as well as the homes of any caregivers for possible dangers from devices with button batteries. Ensure that the devices are kept out of sight and reach of children. Share this life-saving information with caregivers, friends, family members, and sitters. It could save a life.

If you suspect your child has ingested a battery, go to the emergency room immediately and quickly make them aware of your situation. Don’t induce vomiting or have your child eat or drink anything until assessed by a medical professional.

Enter the National Poison Center Hotline (1-800-222-1222) into your phone right now. Call anytime for advice and treatment information.

Household Safety: Button Batteries (for Parents)

What Are Button Batteries?

Button batteries are small, shiny, coin-shaped batteries. They’re used in devices like watches, toys, remote controls, flameless candles, holiday decorations, and hearing aids. They’re dangerous for toddlers and kids, who easily can put them in their mouths, ears, or noses.

A button battery put in a child’s mouth can get stuck in the windpipe and block breathing. Chemicals in the batteries can cause serious burns when swallowed or stuck in the body. A swallowed button battery or one that’s stuck in the nose or ear can cause a very serious injury.

A swallowed button battery or one in the nose or ears is an emergency.

Safe Battery Storage & Use

Store all batteries where kids can’t see or reach them. Recycle or throw out used batteries properly. Many communities have battery drop-off bins where you can take used batteries.

Also:

• Make sure all battery compartments are securely closed with a screw. Do not give a child any toy if the battery compartment can be opened easily.
• Watch kids carefully whenever they use devices containing batteries.

What to Do if There’s a Missing or Swallowed Battery

A button battery stuck in the body is an emergency.

• Go to the ER right away or call 911 if a button battery is missing or you think your child might have swallowed a battery. Don’t wait until you see the signs of a swallowed button battery before getting help.
• If it’s quickly available, give 5–10 ml of honey on your way to the ER, but only if:
  • The battery was likely swallowed in the last 12 hours.
  • Your child is 12 months old or older, not allergic to honey, and is acting normally.
• If you can, call the national poison control hotline (1-800-222-1222) for help on your way to the hospital.
  But do not delay getting your child to the hospital to make the call or find honey.
• Tell the nurses and doctors in the ER that you believe your child swallowed a button battery. An X-ray can show if the battery is in your child’s body.

Don’t make your child throw up. The battery could cause injury on the way out. Don’t let your child eat or drink except for the honey.

What Are the Signs of a Swallowed Battery?

A child who has swallowed a button battery might:

• drool
• feel sick to the stomach
• throw up
• have a fever
• be coughing or have breathing problems
• have belly pain
• have diarrhea
• have very dark or bloody stool (poop)
• be fussy
• have throat pain
• refuse to eat or drink

If the battery is stuck in the ear or nose, you might see blood or other drainage.

Be Prepared

If you’re expecting a baby or already have a child, it’s a good idea to:

• Childproof your home. Get down on your hands and knees in every room of your home for a kid’s-eye view. Remove or lock away items that could be dangerous.
• Learn cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and the age-appropriate Heimlich maneuver so you are ready in case of emergency.

Even with these precautions in place, kids still can get hurt and accidents do happen. But being prepared will help you to act quickly and confidently in the event of an emergency.

Mom issues warning after toddler is hospitalized for swallowing battery

An Indiana mother is speaking out after her toddler accidentally ate a button battery, hoping to warn parents of the potential household risk.

The quarter-sized battery was surgically removed in September after doctors said 1-year-old Mahziere likely swallowed it two weeks prior.

“He [the surgeon] brought me the battery and I broke down,” mom Ta’Sha Garrett told “Good Morning America.” “I knew the severity of swallowing batteries. I didn’t think that would happen to us. I’m really careful when it comes to things like that.”

Garrett said her son was healthy and behaving normally until one day when she noticed his breathing was off.

“That day I had picked his brother up from school and he was really lethargic,” she said. “Everything about him was moving slow. He ended up sleeping on the car ride home.”

When she got home, Garrett said she heard Mahziere whimpering in the other room. When she went to check on him, she saw bubbles coming out of his mouth.

Garrett said at the hospital, staff tried to administer a COVID-19 test, but she insisted they take X-rays instead.

RELATED: 4-year-old accidentally swallows lollipop with plastic stick

Mahziere was transferred to IU Health Riley Hospital for Children in Indianapolis, where medical staff weren’t exactly certain of what he had swallowed until surgery.

“Up until then, I was pretty optimistic it wasn’t a battery,” Garrett said. “I don’t have watches around the house.”

Dr. Fred Rescorla removed a 22-milimiter lithium battery from the bottom of Mahziere’s throat near his clavicle. He was then hospitalized for a week and a half.

“His mother, she’s a great mom,” Rescorla told “GMA.” “She knew right away something was wrong. ..I was a little apprehensive when I went up to see her. When I approached her, she just wept. She never left his bedside.”

Rescorla noted anesthesiologists had issues getting an airway during the bronchoscopy since the battery burned a hole in Mahziere’s esophagus and caused some swelling.

The doctor saw three cases of children ingesting batteries two years ago.

Emily Samuel, program director at the nonprofit child safety organization Safe Kids Wordwide, said on average, more than 6,300 children go to the ER each year after having ingested a battery.

Children under the age of 5 are more likely to be seen in the emergency room for swallowing a button battery, and toddlers ages 1-3 are at the highest risk for swallowing.

“Younger children under the age of 5 are curious and they’re actively learning and developing new skills,” Samuel told “GMA,” adding that children are also exploring their senses, including taste.

SEE ALSO: Mom rushes 7-year-old son to ER after he swallows AirPod

Garrett said the battery that Mahziere swallowed was a battery from a watch. She learned this after Googling the serial numbers on the battery, she added.

She believes her son may have gotten a hold of it at a relative’s house.

Her message to other parents is to be overly attentive to your kids.

“They move really fast. Even if you think you’re watching them, you have to be mindful that kids move quicker than you,” Garrett said. “If a lot of times people are watching your kids or your kids are going places, warn others what your child is capable of and getting into.”

“It was definitely scary,” she added. “I watched him from going to a breathing tube and not being [himself]. It’s a very traumatic experience for the child and the parent.”

RELATED: Child hospitalized after swallowing common toy battery

Here are tips on how to stay safe, according to Safe Kids:

• Keep greeting cards, remotes, cameras, watches, flameless candles and any other items that may contain batteries out of reach.

• Keep loose batteries locked away.

• Place a piece of duct tape to secure battery compartments.

• Search your home and any place your child goes for items that may contain coin-sized lithium batteries.

• Share this life-saving information with caregivers, friends, family and babysitters.

• If you have any doubts, bring your child to the hospital and request an x-ray.

According to Safe Kids, when a a button battery is swallowed, the saliva triggers an electrical current.

Symptoms of battery ingestion could be tricky to recognize but may include coughing, drooling and discomfort.

“If you think a child has swallowed a button battery, go to the emergency room right away,” Samuel said. “No eating, no drinking and don’t induce vomiting.”

Samuel said parents can also call the National Battery Ingestion Hotline (800-498-8666) for additional treatment information.

What to Do If Your Child Eats Toys, Magnets or Batteries – Cleveland Clinic

Infants and young children will eat the strangest things. Serve them a nutritious meal, and they’ll fight you. They’ll be happy to indulge, however, on a shiny coin, small battery or colorful toy.

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“To prevent problems, keep potential ingestion hazards away from young children — up high, out of sight and out of reach,” says pediatrician Jason Sherman, DO. 

Benign items

Benign items will usually work their way out, but call your doctor with any concerns, especially if you notice these symptoms in your child:

• Coughing.
• Gagging.
• Trouble swallowing.
• Drooling.
• Chest pain.
• Stomach pain.
• Vomiting.
• Problems going to the bathroom.

Gum

Gum is a fairly benign item that your child may accidentally or intentionally swallow.

“Let’s dismiss the old wives’ tale,” says Dr. Sherman. “Gum does not stay in a person’s stomach for seven years. Although it’s true that gum cannot be digested, a small wad of gum will usually make its way out of the child’s stomach in a couple of days.”

The biggest danger is if the amount of gum is large enough to cause choking. Otherwise, if your child swallows the gum without other symptoms, you typically don’t need to take the child to a pediatrician or the emergency department.

Modeling clay

Most of the major brands of modeling clay, such as Play Doh, are nontoxic and say so on the container. Unless a child eats a large amount, most modeling clay should not  cause serious problems, other than possibly some mild diarrhea. If your child ingests a significant amount or feels sick, then you should make a trip to the doctor or emergency department.

Small toy pieces

These are a little trickier.

“Most small toys with rounded edges will pass through a child’s digestive system within a few days,” says Dr. Sherman. “A sharp-edged or a larger piece can sometimes cause problems.”

For this reason, if your child swallows a sharp or large piece of a toy, it is best to call your pediatrician and plan on a visit or a trip to the emergency room for evaluation. It is also OK to go to your pediatrician’s office if they have X-ray capability there.

Dangerous items

The following items are hazardous when ingested and need a doctor’s immediate attention:

Lithium and alkaline batteries

Lithium batteries, also known as button batteries, are small and round, and can cause significant problems if ingested. Button batteries are commonly found in toys, hearing aids, key fobs and watches. The batteries are loaded with dangerous chemicals that can be very harmful to a child’s digestive system. Regular, alkaline batteries are also extremely dangerous if swallowed, but that’s less likely because of their larger size.

If your child swallows any type of battery, this is considered an emergency and you should immediately take your child to a hospital emergency department.

Magnets

Magnets can cause a lot of damage in a child’s GI tract and can twist intestines, causing bowel ulcerations, intestinal damage, perforations, blood poisoning and even death.

It can be even more life-threatening if your child swallows more than one magnet. If one magnet is stuck in the colon and the other is in the small intestine, those magnets can attach to each other through bowel walls. This can potentially cut off blood supply or tear a hole in the bowel, allowing waste to leak into the body. The effects can make your child extremely sick and can be fatal. 

To prevent this from happening, get rid of any toys that have magnets in them. If your child swallows a magnet, or if you think your child swallowed a magnet, you should take him to a hospital emergency department immediately. 

Coins

Coins are one of the most common items that children swallow. If your child swallows a coin, take him or her to the pediatrician or to a hospital emergency department. Although most small coins will pass through a child’s GI tract, it is important to know where the coin is in the child’s digestive tract. An X-ray may be necessary to ensure that the coin is passing through the digestive tract normally.

Don’t ignore these symptoms

After swallowing an object, if your child develops coughing, gagging, trouble swallowing, drooling, chest pain, stomach pain, vomiting, or problems going to the bathroom, you should either contact your pediatrician’s office or take your child to a hospital emergency department.

“Remember, prevention of ingestion is key,” says Dr. Sherman. “Encourage children to play with age-appropriate toys. Closely monitor and always observe your child as they grows, develops and explores his world.”

Your child’s pediatrician is a phone call away. If your child swallows something, don’t wait for symptoms to appear. If you are uncertain or concerned about something your child has swallowed, you can also contact the National Capital Poison Center hotline: 1-800-222-1222.

Batteries Cause Devastating Injuries

The Full Story

While most button battery ingestions are benign, passing through the gut without a problem, in recent years the number of debilitating or fatal battery ingestions has dramatically increased. Fatalities and cases with severe esophageal or airway burns and subsequent complications have been reported, even in patients who initially have no symptoms after swallowing the battery.These disastrous outcomes occur when batteries get stuck in the esophagus, usually in small children. Large diameter button batteries, especially 20 mm diameter lithium coin cells, are implicated in most of these serious cases, but other battery types and smaller button batteries may also get stuck and cause serious problems. Burns and life-threatening complications can occur if batteries aren’t removed from the esophagus within 2 hours. Batteries beyond the esophagus rarely cause a problem and can usually be left to pass spontaneously if the patient remains asymptomatic. Serious complications have also been seen when small batteries are placed in the nose or ear – another situation where urgent removal is critical.

Tips for Protecting Young Children

• Never leave batteries sitting out. Store spare batteries, and batteries to be recycled, out of sight and reach of young children. If recycling is not possible, wrap used batteries securely and discard them where a child can’t find them.
• Check all household devices to be certain the battery compartment is secured shut. Use strong tape to secure compartments that children can open or that might pop open if the device is dropped. Only purchase products that require a screwdriver or tool to open the battery compartment, or that are closed with a child-resistant locking mechanism. Batteries are everywhere.
• Check:
  • remote controls
  • garage door openers
  • keyless entry fobs
  • bathroom scales
  • parking transponders
  • toys
  • cameras
  • watches
  • PDAs
  • calculators
  • digital thermometers
  • hearing aids
  • singing greeting cards
  • talking books
  • portable stereos
  • handheld video games
  • cell phones
  • home medical equipment/meters
  • flash and pen lights
  • flashing shoes
  • toothbrushes, bedwetting monitors
  • keychains
  • flashing or lighted jewelry or attire
  • any household item that is powered!
• Be especially cautious with any product that contains a battery that is as big as a penny or larger.
  • The 20 mm diameter lithium cell is one of the most serious problems when swallowed.
  • These problem cells can be recognized by their imprint (engraved numbers and letters) and often have one of these 3 codes: CR2032, CR2025, CR2016.
  • If swallowed and not removed promptly, these larger button batteries can cause death – or burn a hole through your child’s esophagus.
• Don’t allow children to play with batteries or with battery powered products that have easily accessible batteries.
• Make sure all hearing aids for children have child-resistant battery compartments and make sure the lock is activated when the child is wearing the aid.
• Alert family members who wear hearing aids to the importance of keeping the batteries out of reach of small children at all times.  That can be quite a burden since most hearing aid users remove the batteries from the aids each time they take the aids off. 
• Don’t insert or change batteries in front of small children.  

Tips for Protecting Older Children and Adults

• Never put batteries in your mouth, to test, to hold, or for any reason. They are slippery and easily swallowed.
• Don’t mistake batteries for pills. Don’t store batteries near pills or in pill bottles. Don’t leave them on bedside tables or place them loose in your pocket or purse. Look at every medicine you intend to swallow.Turn on the lights, put on your glasses, read the label and look at the medicine itself.  
• If you use a hearing aid, these steps are especially important. All too often, the tiny hearing aid batteries are ingested with or instead of medications. 
• Avoid storing or leaving batteries where they might be mistaken for, or swallowed with, food.  
• Don’t leave batteries in drinking glasses or adjacent to nuts, candy, popcorn or other finger foods. 

If a Battery is Swallowed or Placed in the Ear or Nose

• Call the National Battery Ingestion Hotline at 800-498-8666, immediately. Prompt action is critical. Don’t wait for symptoms to develop. If the battery was swallowed, don’t eat or drink until an x-ray shows the battery is beyond the esophagus. Batteries stuck in the esophagus must be removed as quickly as possible as severe damage can occur in just 2 hours. Batteries in the nose or ear also must be removed immediately to avoid permanent damage.

Swallowed a battery?

Get help from the battery ingestion hotline immediately

CALL 800-498-8666

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For More Information

Button Battery Statistics

Button Battery Mechanism of Injury

Button Battery Treatment Guideline

Button Battery Severe Cases

Button Battery Fatal Cases

Button Batteries in the News

References

Litovitz TL, Whitaker N, Clark L. Preventing battery ingestions: an analysis of 8648 cases. Pediatrics. 2010;125(6):1178-1183.

Litovitz TL, Whitaker N, Clark L, White NC, Marsolek M. Emerging battery-ingestion hazard: clinical implications. Pediatrics. 2010;125(6):1168-1177.

Swallowed Button Batteries Must be Removed: Study

By Amy Norton

HealthDay Reporter

SATURDAY, May 18, 2019 (HealthDay News) — Doctors might want to be more aggressive about treating children who swallow a button battery and appear to be out of danger, a preliminary study suggests.

The small, round batteries — found in everything from watches to remote controls to toys — have become an increasingly common cause of young children’s trips to the emergency room.

“Button batteries are everywhere,” said lead researcher Dr. Racha Khalaf. “And they’re small and shiny, and attractive to kids.”

Whenever a child swallows a battery — or might have swallowed one — parents should get to the hospital right away.

The biggest worry is a battery stuck in the esophagus, according to Khalaf, a pediatric gastroenterologist at Children’s Hospital Colorado in Aurora.

When that happens, the battery can quickly burn through the tissue there and cause serious, or even fatal, damage. So doctors act right away, threading an endoscope down into the throat to remove the battery.

The situation is different if X-rays show the battery has moved into the stomach. If it’s not causing symptoms, guidelines say doctors can wait to see if the child passes it naturally.

But in the latest study, Khalaf’s team found that even in symptom-free children, button batteries that make it into the stomach can damage the lining there. That suggests doctors should consider removing them in those cases, too, the researchers said.

The findings are based on records from 68 children treated at four pediatric hospitals between 2014 and 2018. All had an endoscopy procedure to retrieve a button battery from the stomach. Many had no symptoms when they arrived at the hospital.

Overall, Khalaf’s team found, 60 percent of the children showed some erosive damage to the stomach lining.

“We saw one major adverse event,” Khalaf said.

In that case, she explained, the battery created a hole in the child’s stomach because it sat there for so long. (Doctors estimated it had been there for nearly five days.)

But even in less-severe cases of stomach-lining erosion, Khalaf said, the concern is that the damage could progress: Doctors can’t know if or when the battery will pass.

Button batteries are a concern both because they can cause severe injury — and because of their ubiquity in home products, according to Dr. Danielle Orsagh-Yentis, a pediatric gastroenterology fellow at Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus, Ohio.

In a study published in the May issue of Pediatrics, Orsagh-Yentis and colleagues found that about 100 U.S. children per day land in the ER after accidentally swallowing a foreign object. The rate is almost double what it was in the mid-1990s.

There was a rise in ingestions of batteries, specifically — and a button battery was to blame almost 9 times out of 10.

The new findings, Orsagh-Yentis said, suggest that button batteries may cause stomach erosion more often than doctors think.

“The findings are interesting, and as clinicians we need to reflect on them,” said Orsagh-Yentis, who was not involved in the new research. “They underscore a need for vigilance in managing these cases.”

However, she said, this type of study — a review of patient records — cannot prove that removing button batteries from the stomach rather than letting nature take its course actually improves kids’ outcomes.

In addition, any medical procedure has potential risks. Removing a battery via endoscope does carry a small risk of bleeding or perforation, Khalaf noted.

For parents, she said, the most important thing is to prevent these incidents in the first place: Always store battery packs in a safe place where kids can’t reach them. And when replacing a battery, dispose of the old one properly — never leave it lying around.

If your child does swallow a battery — or you think he or she has — get medical care right away, Khalaf stressed.

Khalaf was to present the findings Saturday at the annual Digestive Disease Week meeting, in San Diego. Studies presented at meetings are generally considered preliminary until they are published in a peer-reviewed journal.

This mom is turning grief into action after her toddler died from swallowing a button battery

Trista Hamsmith suffered the unimaginable when her 18-month-old daughter Reese died late last year after accidentally swallowing a button battery — the kind that’s found in many home devices and toys.

And now, especially as Mother’s Day approaches, she’s doing everything in her power to prevent a similar tragedy from ever occurring again.

“This did not have to happen,” said Hamsmith, who is starting a non-profit aimed at raising awareness about the batteries’ dangers and is advocating for better safety legislation. “It was placed on my heart very early that I want to see changes in the law so no other family has to go through this.”

At first, Reese just seemed to have a bad cold. She had become congested and wheezy at the end of October, and on Halloween, Hamsmith brought the toddler to the pediatrician, who suspected croup and gave Reese a steroid. Come back in if she gets worse, the doctor said.

Hamsmith would later come to find out that croup is a common misdiagnosis when a child has ingested a button battery. But the family didn’t suspect it until they realized the day after the doctor’s visit that one of the flat, round batteries was missing from a remote control in their Lubbock, Texas, home. Hamsmith worried that perhaps the dog had swallowed it, but when she searched online for symptoms of ingestion — wheezing, coughing, vomiting and more — she was no longer concerned about the puppy.

“I realized somebody in my house had some of these symptoms, and it wasn’t the dog,” Hamsmith said.

The family raced Reese to the hospital that Sunday, and within 30 minutes of getting in the car, an X-ray confirmed their fears: The battery was lodged near the top of Reese’s esophagus.

Reese underwent emergency surgery to remove the battery from her body, and the Hamsmiths brought her home after three days. Medical professionals explained that button batteries continue to burn tissue even after they are removed; as Poison Control explains, “an electrical current can form around the outside of the battery, generating hydroxide (an alkaline chemical) and causing a tissue burn.” Reese would need to be on a liquid diet until she returned to the doctor in about a month.

“We thought, ‘OK, we’ll have a hard road of no solid foods,’” Hamsmith said. “We’ll eat in the bathroom so we don’t have food in front of Reese. We’ll keep her on the liquids, we’ll get through this.”

But within just a few days, Reese seemed sicker. The Hamsmiths’ pediatrician checked with Reese’s surgeon, who ordered a CT scan because he was worried the battery created a hole.

“The surgeon was right: She had a fistula, a hole that had been created through her esophagus and the trachea,” Hamsmith said. “It essentially connected the two when they shouldn’t be connected, so food and air was getting where it doesn’t need to be.”

Surgeons gave Reese a “G-button,” or gastronomy tube, to directly provide her body with nutrition. “She came back sedated and on a ventilator, and that was the last time I saw my child like herself,” Hamsmith said.

Trista Hamsmith with daughter Reese.Courtesy of Trista Hamsmith.

The next few weeks were a whirlwind of ups and downs as doctors ultimately planned surgery to repair the fistula. One night, Reese had a respiratory code and switched hospitals. An extra scope was needed to make sure her tubes were in the right place. At the end of November, doctors were finally able to repair the fistula fully in a surgery that went better than expected.

Reese was even taken off the ventilator after healing from that surgery. But later that evening, after stepping away to grab food for the first time that day, Hamsmith was chilled to see the hallways empty. “How awful,” she thought. “Someone’s not doing well.”

“Right as I turned the corner, I realized everyone was in Reese’s room, and I heard, ‘Starting compressions!’” Hamsmith recounted. “I remember going in and yelling, ‘Baby, you’ve gotta fight!’ I remember going to my knees. I remember making anyone in the room that did not have their hands on my child to get on their knees and pray with me.”

The doctors got Reese back that day. She was put back on the ventilator and later underwent surgery to receive a tracheotomy. Just two days later, Reese’s vital signs crashed. This time the doctors’ interventions didn’t work.

“I bent my head to pray, and I thought, ‘we’ve done this before; we’ll do it again,’” Hamsmith said. “They worked on her for 30 or 40 minutes while I begged God not to take her. But she didn’t make it. After that, I got to hold her for the first time in 40 days. She was blue. She was gone.”

Reese, just 18 months old, died on Dec. 17, 2020. Her mother was beyond devastated. But she also knew she had to act.

What parents need to know

Hamsmith took solace in a religious message emblazoned on a little plaque in Reese’s hospital room: “He has a plan, and I have a purpose.”

And so eventually, Reese’s Purpose was born. The organization, which is in the process of becoming a registered 501(c)(3) non-profit, has multiple aims: change the law to mandate secure tool-required battery compartments for button batteries; encourage the industry to bring a safer battery to market; raise funds to support families of children injured by button batteries; and increase education of parents and medical professionals about the signs of button battery ingestion.

Reese’s Purpose also became the name of a Facebook group that Hamsmith had created in mid-November to update people on Reese’s status as she fought in the hospital. Hamsmith has additionally been busy launching a petition on Change. org that calls for a bill to establish national standards for consumer products that contain button batteries, as well as testifying before the Consumer Product Safety Commission.

In her CPSC testimony, Hamsmith noted that national records show 3,500 people swallow button batteries annually and that experts suspect that number is vastly underreporting how many people actually ingest them. For now, as she fights for legislation, Hamsmith said she is dedicating herself to educating parents about the hidden dangers of button batteries.

“It scares me to put a list on it, because they’re in more places than you might think,” Hamsmith said. “I am begging parents to be aware of how the devices in your home are powered. Take an hour to do a full sweep, and check every single product.”

If parents do find button batteries in their devices, they should make sure the batteries are secured if possible — either behind a closure that requires a screwdriver to open, or duct-taped for devices like remotes — and that the products are stored out of reach of children.

Poison Control notes button batteries may be found not only in remotes but also toys, games, flashing jewelry, singing greeting cards, thermometers, battery-powered tealight candles and many other items. Poison Control recommends immediately calling the 24-hour National Battery Ingestion Hotline at 800-498-8666 for guidance if someone swallows a battery.

“We should still have Reese,” Hamsmith said. “This has been a known issue for a while and we’re still seeing kids get injured or die. Now is the time: We need moms, dads, grandparents to help advocate for this change so when this issue does get to the Hill, we’re heard. This didn’t have to happen to Reese. It just didn’t.”

90,000 What happens if a child eats or swallows a battery?

Caring parents spend all day trying to prevent from letting all the strange things end up in their child’s mouth . In most cases, everything ends relatively well – the main thing is to avoid the danger of suffocation .

A completely different situation, when it comes to the battery – in addition to suffocation, children are also threatened by the chemical composition of the battery, as well as the metal parts of the shell.

Most portable devices include mechanisms to protect children from easy access to small parts and batteries. But what happens if the child still swallows the battery?

Can he do it only with with a round battery in the form of a pill, or is there a threat with little fingers and finger too? Below you will find out which risks from a swallowed battery for the baby really exist, and which are far-fetched.

Regular round button batteries

They look like coins , small, easy to swallow like pill . These batteries are cheap to manufacture and hold a charge for a long time, which is why they are common in devices with low power consumption. These include watches, calculators and of course children’s toys .

The human body is hardy – in most cases a swallowed battery will pass through the child’s digestive system without incident , but there are tragic exceptions.

The British Accident Prevention Trust ( CAPT ) has shown that lithium batteries can react with saliva. As a result, sodium hydroxide (caustic soda NaOH ) is formed, as in pipe cleaners (remember the example of how Bari Alibasov got to the hospital). In just a couple of hours, internal injuries can lead to deaths. See how it looks.

CPR Kids demonstrated the effects of swallowing a battery

Publisher Sarah Hunstead set up an experiment using slow motion (when the action speeds up), a lithium battery and animal meat.

This helped to find out that due to contact with organic tissues and conductive saliva (in an oxidizing environment) only in 2 hours corrosive processes cause chemical reaction and serious burns of organs .

Sarah was prompted by an incident when her daughter in the supermarket in the children’s goods section took out a small battery from the shelf.

According to Sarah, the daughter is extremely interested in the small cold shiny object .She liked the metal shell of the lithium battery, which is potentially fatal . Fortunately, they managed to avoid swallowing. But the proactive mother hastened to share the knowledge of with an expert approach and clear evidence of the entire danger of the situation.

Little finger and finger batteries

Swallowing of such large objects in the first place is fraught with suffocation and only in the second – chemical damage of internal organs.But even despite the larger dimensions than the round battery-pill , little finger (AAA) and even finger (AA) batteries, due to the cylindrical shape, quickly enough get from the oral cavity into the esophagus, immediately causing extremely discomfort in the child.

Moreover, the situation is terrible , if we are talking about very young children who cannot consciously express the cause of severe discomfort.

Worst of all, if during the game, the child also saw through the shell . Electrolyte could leak out and get onto the mucous membrane of the mouth and gastrointestinal tract. As soon as you find your little one feeling unwell, check to see if he could eat a lithium battery. If in doubt call the medics .

How do I know if a child has swallowed a battery?

These are the main symptoms that can appear simultaneously or separately.Information for parents is provided by CAPT. They usually develop from the most harmless to the most severe symptoms.

• • Nausea
• • Loss of appetite
• • Sore throat
• • Abdominal pain
• • Excessive salivation
• • Vomiting
• • Asphyxiation

unused battery But under any circumstances, you should quickly call the doctors or take the child to the emergency room yourself.

At the medical institution they will make an X-ray , which will show the state of the body and the effect of the battery on it. After that, measures will be taken to remove it. Remember that just a couple of hours after being swallowed, a fatal chemical reaction can break out inside your baby.

What measures are needed to ensure that the child never swallows the battery?

1. 1. If you have batteries that are not being used, then store them in places that are not accessible to childish pranks.
2. 2. Dispose of used batteries and accumulators as soon as possible – be aware that they may explode.
3. 3. Examine the toys before allowing children to play – where the battery pack can be opened without a screwdriver, there is a high probability that a child will open it.

Learn all about battery safety

If you have children, have you told them about the dangers of batteries? Share your experience with other parents in the comments. We are waiting for your messages and VKontakte @NeovoltRu.

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If a child swallows a battery. Steps to health. Social project for children and parents, pediatricians

Today, children quite often swallow batteries in children’s toys, flashlights, TV remotes, car alarm key fobs, watches and other items. Unfortunately, this can be fatal !!!

A child swallowed a battery: what happens in the body

In a humid environment, under the influence of digestive juices after a short time, the battery oxidizes with the release of hazardous substances: alkali, mercury, zinc, silver, and acids. Consequently, burns are formed, both chemical and electrical, leading to ulcers, inflammation of the digestive tract, up to burning through organs (esophagus, trachea, etc.) with bleeding, which threatens death or disability.

It doesn’t matter: a working battery or a discharged one.

The child swallowed the battery: symptoms

Initially, there may be no symptoms. Signs that a child has swallowed a battery may include:
temperature rise,
nausea,
pain in the abdomen, behind the breastbone,
dark stools or vomiting of blood with bleeding.

Varieties of batteries

There are several types of batteries that are most commonly swallowed by children:

• button cell battery,
• mini AAA battery,
• AA finger battery.
• Of course, it is possible that a child may swallow another type of battery.

The most dangerous are lithium batteries: the difference in charge in them is the reason for the “sticking” of batteries to the wall of organs with the appearance of erosion, and then ulcers.

A child swallowed a battery: what to do

You must immediately call the ambulance team!

Do not use emetics!

At the hospital, your child will definitely have an X-ray examination to find out where the battery is in the digestive tract.

If the battery is found in the esophagus, it must be promptly removed.

If a battery is found in the stomach, its natural exit from the gastrointestinal tract is possible. In this case, the child only needs supervision. Important: observation only in a hospital !!! Under no circumstances should a child stay at home with a swallowed battery, even if the battery is in the stomach or intestines!

The battery requires urgent removal if

• stomach ache or vomiting of blood,
• battery size 15.5 mm or more 90 150

• the battery remains in the stomach for 48 hours.

A foreign body is removed during the procedure of fibrogastroduodenoscopy with medical forceps or special loops under anesthesia. After the battery has left the child’s gastrointestinal tract, a course of antiulcer treatment is required.

To prevent accidents from swallowing batteries:

• toys with batteries should be out,
• it is better to keep the remote control and other items with batteries out of reach,
• It is better to wrap the cover over the battery compartment in the devices with tape.

Gorodkova Yulia Vyacheslavovna
Department of Pediatric Diseases, FPO ZSMU

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90,000 A child swallowed a battery: how to help him: February 22, 2019, 14:19

Endoscopist of the Mangystau Regional Children’s Hospital Kazbek Kelamanov told Tengrinews.kz what to do if your child swallows a battery, coin or other foreign body, and how to prevent such cases …

Over ten years of work in intensive care and five years in endoscopy, the doctor had to deal with different situations. Almost every day, children are admitted to the hospital who have swallowed foreign objects. Most often, the attention of children is attracted by coins, batteries, small parts of toys, screws. These items enter the bronchopulmonary system, gastrointestinal tract, duodenum.

These items were recovered by the doctors of the Mangistau Regional Children’s Hospital

How to know if a child has swallowed a foreign body

This is usually immediately noticeable by the behavior of the child.He may have difficulty breathing and swallowing, saliva flows profusely, and blue appears in the nasolabial triangle. Every movement of the child causes pain. In this case, you need to see a doctor. In every hospital there are pediatric anesthesiologists, endoscopists who can remove a foreign object from the child’s body. Kazbek Kelamanov notes: it is important to know what exactly got into the child’s body. For example, a battery can oxidize, and if not removed in time, injury to the gastrointestinal tract can result.

It is extremely dangerous when a foreign body enters the respiratory tract, warns the doctor. Objects can block the air supply, and if not provided immediate assistance, death occurs within a few minutes.

“Foods can also get into the respiratory tract – these are seeds, nuts, bread crumbs, apples. Apples are a separate topic. They quickly cause an inflammatory process, being inside the lumen of the bronchi. On x-rays, as a rule, they are not visible. endoscopic examination.The sooner we remove it, the less inflammation will be. After the procedure, you still need to look at the dynamics in order to wash, cleanse these bronchi, “said the endoscopist.

How to help a child when he has swallowed something

If the child chokes or swallows a foreign object, the parent can provide first aid. You need to put the child on your forearm with his head down and knock several times with your palm on the back at the level of the shoulder blades.

In this case, you must not hit the child strongly with a fist or the edge of the palm.The spine of an infant is easily injured, up to and including damage to the spinal cord. Do not shake the child upside down, holding him by the legs, since children have a very weak ligamentous apparatus of the spine.

In many cases, endoscopists manage to remove foreign objects from the body of children. In the practice of Kazbek Kelamanov, there were cases when children swallowed magnets, batteries, coins, small parts of toys, bones, buttons, screws. Doctors perform extraction manipulations using two instruments – a dormia basket and crocodile forceps.

Tool basket Dormia

Crocodile Forceps

Deaths are not always avoided, even if the object can be removed, the doctor notes. Pediatric endoscopists recommend that parents closely monitor young children. They advise removing all small items in the house.

“The child learns the world with the organs of touch, tries to taste everything on the tongue. Here the parents must watch him. The child is not to blame for anything.Parents should remove all objects from a visible place, “said the doctor.

In February 2019, doctors at the Mangystau Regional Children’s Hospital removed a battery from a TV remote control from a one and a half-year-old girl. According to the girl’s mother, she did not notice how her daughter swallowed the battery. Only the next day, the girl began to show anxiety, vomiting began. Using a special apparatus, the object was removed from the child’s stomach. The girl is feeling well.

90,000 The child swallowed the battery….

I fiddled with the youngest, he was then about six months old, and the older, respectively, two and a half.

A neighbor brought the elder, Grisha, a typewriter and he was sitting with it playing on a highchair. I turn and look, there is a typewriter and two batteries on the table, but there should be three. There is nothing on the floor and he looks like he swallowed it.

I ask, shows, am! He hadn’t put anything into his mouth for a long time, and the little one was rarely noticed for this. And that there are such batteries in the typewriter, I did not even have time to make out.We, in principle, have no toys with such small tablets, I never thought ..

They called the ambulance and went to do an x-ray. We sat in the queue for two hours, did it and we were told that it was already in the intestines and most likely it would come out on its own. Feed as usual. If it doesn’t work out in three days, come for a second X-ray. Only after I put the children to bed did I look on the Internet. Then panic began … it turned out that such a battery can stick to the walls of the esophagus, stomach or intestines and oxidize, burn them.And there have even been cases of death.

Next, I read what can be done to make it exit faster:

• If he does not mind, give the child a roll, cookies, bread, thick porridge. Anything that can swell in the intestines and push it through.
• Milk and milk porridge are antioxidants, drink and eat until the battery runs out.
• IN NO EVENT DO NOT DO ELEMENTS AND RINSING OUT !!! Food, especially if you have eaten little before, will come out, and the battery is heavier than water and will simply remain there, and it may even stick.A laxative is also undesirable, especially if the baby has regular bowel movements. Wait for him to go to the toilet himself. If you want, it is better to give beets, prunes, etc.
• Although we were reassured and sent home, BUT, it is better to either do an X-ray every day (although it is also harmful), or stay in the hospital under supervision.
• If the battery oxidizes and crumbles, the stool will be black. If the child will show his tummy, even before, even after, urgently call an ambulance.At least, you will earn an ulcer, in the worst case, the child will treat the consequences of a chemical burn all his life.
• And don’t wait three days, as we were told. Yes, they have a lot of work and no vacancies, but this is your child. Insist on hospitalization.

Thank God my child drinks milk at night and loves oatmeal with milk in the morning. Yes, and we have a regular chair. By lunchtime, the battery went out, and he swallowed it in the evening, at seven o’clock. The battery was light brown, but did not fall apart or oxidize.And now we buy toys with batteries only with fingertips.

I’ll make a small amendment. My post is aimed not so much at eliminating the consequences as at preventing them. I am not a doctor and I can be wrong in my recommendations. Do not buy toys with small batteries for children under 5 years old. If you have devices with them, keep track of how much, where and if everything is in place. If in doubt, whether you have swallowed it or not, call an ambulance or go straight to the hospital for an x-ray.

Health to everyone!

Doctors of St. Vladimir’s hospital saved a baby who swallowed a battery

aortic arch.For a month, the battery stood in the child’s esophagus, oxidizing and causing inflammation and burns of the mucous membrane. The boy began to eat poorly. First, I refused complementary foods, which had a denser consistency, and then from liquid food and water. Vomiting appeared. The kid began to lose weight quickly. Only then did the parents go to the doctor, unable to understand the situation.

The child was admitted to the Department of Thoracic Surgery at the St. Vladimir Children’s City Clinical Hospital of the Moscow Department of Health in a serious condition.All the necessary examination was carried out in the first hours. Parenteral nutrition was immediately connected – the introduction of solutions intravenously – and the necessary treatment to stabilize the condition.

On the first day, by means of endoscopy under general anesthesia, the head of the thoracic surgery department Dmitry Haspekov removed the fatal battery from the boy’s esophagus along with three more small foreign bodies that were swallowed by the child later – a seed, a nut and a small piece of metal.First, it was necessary to widen the formed narrowing in order to capture the foreign body with forceps. Great technical difficulties were associated with the formation of scars around the foreign body. A gastrostomy tube was placed to feed the child. The lumen of the esophagus was completely closed below the battery level.

During the month of being in the lumen of the esophagus, the lithium battery caused a severe electrocaustic burn of the underlying tissues, which entailed a pronounced inflammatory process in the form of mediastinitis – inflammation of the organs of the chest cavity, which was detected on computed tomography.

Only after the inflammatory process was completely stopped, the doctor began to intervene – it was necessary to restore its lumen so that the boy could eat and live properly. The elimination of the constriction was carried out in stages, step by step, combined with treatment. The child has now been discharged home with recovery. It is safe to say that the boy was lucky – the function of the esophagus was restored, and nothing threatens the child’s life. 90,013 90,000 what happens if you swallow a battery – 25 recommendations on Babyblog.ru

I want to share my experience, I hope it will be useful to many mothers.

In a year and two months, my child swallowed a 2 cm battery. At 8 pm he swallowed it, after 20 minutes we called an ambulance. We were taken to the 13 Filatov hospital in Sadovo-Kudrinskaya. But with all the bureaucracy, the absence of doctors on the spot (there is only one anesthesiologist for the entire hospital), etc., the battery was removed only three hours after the “swallowing”. They were removed with an endoscope, through the mouth (not an abdominal operation), under general anesthesia.The whole operation took no more than 20 minutes, but in three hours the battery had time to oxidize and solder to the walls of the esophagus (the doctor said that she had to literally tear it out). After 5 days, we underwent the first gastroscopy and set a 2-3 degree burn of the esophagus. We stayed in the hospital for the first five days, they injected us with antibiotics + hormonal drugs, and they didn’t prescribe anything else. after gastroscopy, seeing that the child is behaving quite cheerfully and normally, eating as usual, we were released with the following recommendations:

– phosphalugel (I do not write dosages specially)

– Aekol (preparation based on sea buckthorn oil)

– you can eat ordinary food, but it is not advisable to give something that the child cannot chew or soften with saliva (for example, an apple, carrot ,..)

– control gastroscopy after 10 days

Variants of the development of events (according to the doctor):

– perforation of the wall of the esophagus and trachea. Therefore, if a breathing disorder is found, then urgently go to the ambulance to the hospital. Probable forecast

– the formation of scar tissue at the site of the burn, in this case the probability of stenosis (narrowing) of the esophagus is high. Most likely forecast

– recovery from the fact that everything healed well (unlikely prognosis)

In both the first and second cases, the treatment could last for at least three months and up to several years, but even in this case, the child could remain disabled for life.In the treatment, among other things, bougienage is used (the child is inserted a tube into the esophagus to expand it), the procedure must be performed first 2 times a week, then less and less. It is done without general anesthesia. I think it is not difficult to imagine what kind of wild stress the child’s nervous system is experiencing.

After 10 days, we could not do a gastroscopy, because in the hospital we caught a virus, my son was ill with laryngotracheitis, but in general he was active, ate everything, after three weeks he even started giving him apples, etc.The gastroscopy was done a month after the incident. We were lucky! A miracle happened, the little boy healed well, and there weren’t even any scars.

I want to especially note that I did not give the prescribed drugs to my son (I did not want to give phosphalugel purely intuitively, and the child vomited a couple of times from aekol, before that I gave him pure sea buckthorn oil several times, but quickly stopped and read that it is contraindicated for small children) , but I was very active in breastfeeding him. What exactly worked – the help of mother’s milk or a small age, in which everything often heals quickly, I don’t know, I suppose that everything is in a complex.

Dear mothers, please hide away from your kids all toys, remotes, watches, etc. with batteries (including finger batteries!). If we had not realized in time, the consequences could have been irreversible! Vomiting could be attributed simply to poisoning, and perforation of the esophagus and trachea could be a reality. And this is a direct road to disability and even death. When oxidized inside the body, the battery begins to solder to the walls of the mucous membrane and burn it. It turns out three burns: chemical (from acid or alkali, depending on which battery), electric (due to different charges) and thermal.Black stool after swallowing batteries often indicates open bleeding inside. I don’t want to scare, a small battery can really jump out with feces by itself, it was a large one and got stuck in the esophagus, but it’s better not to hope at random and urgently call an ambulance. Take care of your kids!

Who cares, then you can read everything in detail. 🙂

A couple of hours before the battery, the child ate medlar for the first time, so when I saw that he was vomiting, I attributed it to a new product.A few minutes later, the nausea was repeated, the child reached for the breast (he is breastfed), and obviously wanted to sleep, which I was a little surprised, because at this time he usually did not sleep. I told my husband about my suspicions of medlar, to which he first nodded, but then we noticed that his eyes were slightly changed, a little sleepy, slightly reddened. I began to argue out loud that my son had just swallowed a pea from a cauliflower, he swallowed something in front of me, but the effect of the cabbage would be unlikely.Then the husband immediately assumed that he could iron the battery, because the son was running around with an open empty remote control from the laptop, and before that there was a battery in it (the husband was not frightened right away that the remote control was empty, because he could not even think about it, that at this age you can swallow such a large thing). They rushed to look for her, did not find her, and immediately called the ambulance.

The ambulance employees unhurriedly filled the documents, took them to the hospital unhurriedly (apparently, they saw that he was alive, unharmed, breathing, and we did not have 100% certainty), now I would rush it as best I could! First they took us to the ENT department, they sent us to surgery.The surgery sent an X-ray to the office, to which it was necessary to go across the street, and I again lost time looking for this building in the dark. In the X-ray room, a young sleepy guy told me to wait, came out only five minutes later (it was about 10 pm), everything is also measured and unhurried. The son did not give a protective diaper for the groin area (and I myself did not think of it then) (((After the X-ray, he came out with round eyes, advising him to run to the doctors. and it will be only in half an hour, sent to the department in the ward.They were told not to water or feed the child. Fortunately, the ENT department had a good playroom, and the child was somehow distracted before the doctors arrived. We waited for about an hour. I will not say anything about shedding tears, when the baby was taken from me for an operation and I heard him cry. He cried so much that then the whole neck and face were in red dots – the capillaries burst. After the procedure, the child was returned (at 11 pm), from the anesthesia in my arms, he quickly calmed down, probably in a minute. I was told that the baby should not be fed or watered until an X-ray is done, as it may have a perforation of the esophagus, and food-water can enter the respiratory tract.And an X-ray can only be done tomorrow morning, at 9-10 am, not earlier, because there is only one radiologist and he is not there now! All night and morning she starved the child with hunger and thirst. We did not sleep all night. In the morning he could not see water or food in anyone’s hands, he asked for a breast, cried a lot. In general, the doctors barely waited (As a result, after the X-ray (he showed a strong swelling of the esophagus), they were allowed to breastfeed, and sent to the department of thoracic surgery due to a burn.

Surgery after ENT department is just some kind of hell.There are 7-8 beds for babies in the wards, almost every bed has an iron chair, for mothers …. those mothers who have been living there for more than one day bring inflatable mattresses with them. For us it was terrible because the baby was breastfed, and fell asleep only next to me, I did not know about mattresses then. At the same time, in the ward there is almost endless crying and screaming. There was a sofa in the corridor near the elevator, but even at night I was not allowed to turn off the bright light above it. That is, the child fell asleep even when the nervous system was simply completely exhausted.The corridor is narrow, no games room. As she said, they injected us with antibiotics and hormonal ones (I later read this in the discharge, and the nurse said that they injected with a general antibiotic – toxoferon). Fortunately, due to the fact that we were on a holiday weekend (May 8), we were not dragged for examinations, tests, etc. And also no one followed how long we walk (the doctor allowed for an hour). We managed to torment with examination and blood tests only in the ENT department, where the child is taken from the mother for this. Moreover, they wrote that he was healthy, although he had a severe runny nose (apparently, we caught the sore throat virus in the ENT).

I tried to spend time with my child on the street as long as possible, because we returned to this mess and just almost went crazy. The son was active, but became clearly more nervous, irritable, whiny. Therefore, a day later, my husband began to come for us, and we ran home for a few hours, where the child could get at least a little sleep. On the last day before all the doctors left the holidays, we ran away altogether for the whole night, and for the first time the baby slept fully in all the days. The next day (a worker for doctors) they dragged us in for tests and examinations, they also sent us to a gastroscopy.By the way, at some point I was very worried about the child’s cough, I was afraid of perforation and the consequences, and I spent the whole evening and all night trying to find a doctor on duty, which was during the day, and, of course, I did not find her ..) We did gastro without general anesthesia , of course, I can imagine, my little son had a wild fear, but it was too late for me to reproach myself .. they put a 2-3 degree burn, and I described everything else above. Gastroscopy a month later, where we were told that everything, thank God, is in order! And I breathed a sigh of relief, after a month of nerves and worries)

Dear mothers, in the hospital I saw a stand with objects that were swallowed by children from one to seven years old.Everybody there! Starting from flowers, needles, coins and ending with little soldiers, pen caps, pectoral crosses, nails, and so on! Sometimes it’s hard to believe that it could be swallowed! Foreign bodies enter either the digestive tract or the respiratory tract! Sometimes the consequences were very sad (also, in the department of surgery, I saw enough of the worst cases, I’m very sorry for the children. If from our topic, then especially dangerous cases, almost always with getting into intensive care, were in children who drank cleaning products.Literally a sip of “MOLE” means, and the child immediately goes to intensive care. In this case, almost always the forecast option is either 1 or 2. When I arrived home, I immediately removed all the cleaning products higher!

Therefore, be careful! Take care of your kids!

90,000 What to do if a child swallows a magnet, battery or coin – Rossiyskaya Gazeta

This always happens unexpectedly. Sometimes even the ideal parent, who spends one hundred percent of the time with the child, does not work and does not cook dinner.Hundreds of children every year end up in hospitals after swallowing something inedible: dice, parts from small toys … In Moscow and Moscow region hospitals, for example, there were guys who accidentally “ate” magnets, coins and even batteries. And in all cases urgent help is required.

The secret of a penny

This was also the case in our family – my daughter accidentally swallowed a fish bone, which, due to inattention, was not taken out of the baked fillet. At first everything was fine, but then the child began to complain of a bone in his throat.No bone was visible even in the light of the smartphone’s flashlight. Maybe he’s joking? Yes, it seems not. We decided to consult in the Moscow “ambulance”. And there they said that they would send a brigade, as it could be dangerous. The arriving doctors also could not immediately see the bone and were taken to one of the city hospitals. And already there, an experienced ENT saw the desired thorn in the amygdala and quickly pulled it out. In the same hospital, we met several more parents with the same problem.

Children are inquisitive and inquisitive people.And sometimes also “hiding secrets”. Such, for example, is a 59-year-old (!) Resident of Zelenograd, who was brought to the doctors by a coin “forgotten” in his nose. Out of curiosity, he stuck it into his nose at the age of six, and was afraid to tell his parents. Well, he stuck it in and stuck it in – nothing bothered. Over the years, the innocent prank has been forgotten. And then a month ago the man noticed that it became somehow difficult to breathe through his nose. At first he did not pay much attention, and when it got worse, he still turned to the city clinic. The doctors at first thought that all this was due to a deviated nasal septum.They sent the patient to the now popular CT scan – and they found some kind of extraneous “round”, says Tatyana Mikhailova, an otorhinolaryngologist at the Konchalovsky Hospital. Only then did the patient remember his secret from distant childhood. Computer research has shown that the penny in the last Soviet and post-perestroika years has become firmly entrenched in the nose. According to doctors from Zelenograd, a “rocky conglomerate” has formed around it. He had to be removed under anesthesia. In an hour and a half that the endoscopic operation lasted, it was possible not only to pull out a numismatic rarity, but also to correct the nasal septum.The surgery went without complications. “On Friday we operated on him, and on Monday he was discharged,” Elena Nepryakhina, an otorhinolaryngologist, recalls with humorous relief. But they must be preserved after the intervention for two days.These tampons, like a frame, hold the structure that we assemble after the operation.Mom is not strict with him. “Joking aside, but this penny could be transformed into a million problems. Cranial and purulent complications could well have occurred. It turned out …

Just shine!

But still the main flow of patients with” foreign bodies “- these are children from one to three years old, according to the surgical department of the Moscow Regional Research and Clinical Institute named after M.F. who wanted to try something during the game and accidentally swallowed it.Medical practice shows that fidgets can “eat” almost anything. “The nature of foreign bodies can be completely different – starting from small components of toys and ending with various key chains and jewelry, the shine of which may interest a child,” the press service of the Moscow Region Ministry of Health reported, citing MONIKI employees. “The most common options are coins and disk-shaped batteries, which are usually found in educational and interactive toys. “

The Mytishchi city hospital still remembers the family that brought a one and a half year old baby to the diagnostic department. The adults suspected that the son had swallowed the coin. Roentgen quite clearly “discerned” the two-ruble round. We decided to carry out an endoscopic operation. And then it turned out that there was another coin in the baby’s stomach. Judging by her appearance, she lay there for a long time. A team of surgeons quickly removed the coins. Internal organs are not damaged, the baby’s life is saved. And in the Kolomna city hospital, surgeon Dmitry Matyushenko and his colleagues removed a plastic crystal that had been accidentally swallowed from the stomach of a three-year-old patient.“We had to remove fragments of toys, coins, metal balls from the gastrointestinal tract,” recalls Dmitry Matyushenko. “Most complications arise when children swallow magnets. which stuck together inside and caused a perforation of the small intestine. ”

Beckons like a magnet

There was such a case not so long ago in the regional hospital in the city of Pushkino.A three-year-old boy was admitted to the hospital with abdominal pain and high fever. All signs indicated intestinal obstruction. X-rays revealed metal objects in the intestines – something that looked like a hairpin and tie clip. “The child’s condition was rapidly deteriorating, so we immediately prescribed an operation. During it, we discovered the phenomena of diffuse purulent peritonitis, that is, pus in the abdomen, and multiple intestinal adhesions,” says Aleksey Gromov, head of the children’s surgical department of the regional hospital named after Professor Rozanov.- At first it was not clear why they arose. Later the reason became clear – magnets. In nine places, the magnets “stuck together”, squeezing the intestinal wall together. Holes formed in these areas, so the contents from the intestines entered the abdominal cavity. During the operation, 21 magnets were removed. The resulting holes in the intestine were sutured, and in some places it was necessary to remove sections of the intestine. ”And after a successful operation there were fears for the child’s condition, but the boy, fortunately, was on the mend.

Magnets are especially dangerous for babies. In the abdomen, they adhere and can damage the intestines

Perhaps the most dangerous for the health of a baby are lithium batteries from toys, experts at MONIKI state. If a child swallows them, then soon the battery sealant collapses, and the electrolyte easily penetrates into the lumen of the esophagus or stomach, causing severe burns. Only urgent medical attention can save such a patient. The only way to protect your baby is to keep a close eye on him.And at the first symptoms, for example, with difficulty swallowing, consult a doctor. Most often in such cases, x-rays are taken. If the picture is clear, and the symptoms are still observed, endoscopic diagnostics are already used. Doctors note that most often foreign bodies are found in the gastrointestinal tract, esophagus and respiratory tract. In some cases, as experts from MONIKI emphasize, swallowing parts, coins and other “little things” in just two or three days can lead to serious complications.