Button battery

[ShalommJackie]

I am not being u but I need to spread this message! I'm a surgeon who removes these on a regular basis. (I'm off work at the moment with cancer but I've just been given the stats of how many batteries we've removed in the last year and it's gone up exponentially)

If you suspect your child has eaten a button battery, take them to A&E immediately as the battery can burn their oesophagus or stomach.

If your child is over 1 year old whilst either waiting for the ambulance or in the back seat of the car give them 10ml of honey every 10 minutes up to 6 times. The honey will coat the battery and protect their stomach from potential burns.

If your child is under 1 years old old. Do not give honey because of the risk of botulism in the honey because their immune system isn't strong enough. Just go to hospital immediately, it might be quicker just to put them in the car. *
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I've added a photo to show the effect honey can have on button batteries.

Button batteries are in so many things these days it's so scary. If you've got toys with button batteries in them (bath toys etc) please put something like duct tape over the battery compartment so your child can't open it!

I hope this helps someone

They use them because they are smaller and more environmentally friendly than a large alkaline battery and they are smaller.

There are also now a lot more devices around that will run off them. Kids swallowing them is likely to be a function of the number of them in circulation. I certainly use a lot more of them now than I used to.

Devices are getting smaller and smaller and need less and less power. I think there are a couple of things that could be done.

One is make it so no compartment lid that goes over them can be opened without a tool. That would stop kids being able to take the lids off easily. Second is to ban them in childrens toys. Third is to find some way of fusing them internally. Basically the current that runs when they burn out is far higher than when they are operating normally. So they could try to find a way of limiting the max current. That would of course limit the max power that could be used by a device, but any device using them would be unlikely to run anywhere near the max power anyway as the lifetime of the battery would be too short.

Thanks for sharing this.

I am continually shocked by the number of dog toys that have button batteries in them, all of those light up balls etc.
my dogs rip toys to shreds and are very prone to swallowing small parts.
I wonder if is commonly see by vets?

I don't mind button batteries being used, but the two problems I see is where battery compartments are loose and not secure - they ought to be required to be closed with a screw or something so they can't come apart by accident - and then disposing of used batteries can be an issue. Not allowed to throw them out with household rubbish, so you end up collecting them for ages thinking "I'll take those to the recycling station at some point" - this is a danger because again you then have loose batteries just lying around at home, which a child might find and get into. Spare ones can be a problem too although I do think the bigger brands like Duracell are doing better childproof packaging these days. The pound shop ones are a problem because they are stored in a horrid blister pack where you open it to get one and the rest all fall out - this shouldn't be allowed (or should contain a warning).

Maybe some kind of child-proof box where you can insert used batteries would be useful, and then this could either be kept until the householder can take it to a recycling point, or put into the household recycling to be removed easily.

They are dreadful, my dd came home from a party with a balloon that had a built in light...with of course a button battery in. Totally unnecessary.

Button batteries are dangerous to swallow for sure and everyone should know about it.
But...
I always thought the advice was not to swallow anything else...
My question is... We don't know you are really a surgeon off work with cancer or just some well meaning but possibly misinformed person wanting to claim credibility by saying you're a surgeon..
Is the honey thing genuine or misinformation? Is my ponder.

Yes, you've put a picture of a leaking battery coated in honey looking different to the one not coated in honey ... On a plate. As a science experiment the conditions don't replicate the stomach.

Meanwhile, in the human body food stimulates digestive juices... That same idea could make the situation worse not better... Perhaps. 🤔

We don't know who you really are or if your advice is sound. Do you have any links to official advice on this honey swallowing tip? Or just this Take A Break life hack style photo?

PoochiesPinkEars I googled the honey thing after reading the OP & found multiple sources including the NHS mentioning honey as a good thing in these circumstances.

Would the slight risk of honey not be outweighed by it benefits or giving it in this situation?

Thanks, good to ask these questions when misinformation is rife online. 👍

They are really scary. My three year old wears hearing aids and I'm constantly worried the tamper proofing will fail and he, or his little brother, will swallow one. DH dropped one the other day and it took us forever to find as they're so small.

Our next nearest hospital trust offers aids with rechargeable batteries instead. They're not an option in our area yet though 🙄.

I have never heard of this honey thing, does it help if it is stuck in their throat?

My youngest actually did swallow a battery when he was about 18mo, from an old toy we didn't know had broken. I was really unimpressed at the operators nonchalance when we rang for an ambulance, she didn't seem to be concerned at all but we insisted they send us an ambulance (we don't drive). He was x-rayed and they could see it in his stomach, as he had no symptoms or strange behaviour they told us to let it pass naturally (check his nappies for it) but bring him back if he suddenly showed symptoms.

He was okay and it passed a couple of days later (luckily the battery was very old and worn out).

It helps coat the battery so it doesn't burn through the oesophagus or intestine

I was at work a few Christmases ago and we had a crash call to an infant who had swallowed one of these, the next day when we were sitting having our lunch the registrar came in, he was not ok, it was horrendous call and the child was out on life support and taken to picu in the closest paeds hospital but to give the parents time to say goodbye, it was truly horrendous they should be banned. That registrar and the staff and parents have to live with trying to save that little one for the rest of their lives. It affected us all that Christmas as the staff who attended were so deeply affected by what had happened.

It is actually law in the uk that they have to have a screw on the battery compartment if it is a children's toy/book etc, but unfortunately there is so much cheap import shit from amazon/ebay now and obviously adult's things with no screw compartment.

Plus screws can fail!

Button batteries scare me so much...we keep them in a high up sealed box on the top of the kitchen cupboard, sealed inside the box in a zip lock bag.We have some musical books with them in with sealed compartments but I don't allow them in bedrooms as worried they could come out and get in the girls beds/be handled or played with when we aren't there to supervise or notice.

But we still had an incident recently where a screw failed on DD's light up star and she found a button battery in her bed...luckily she is 7 and knows they are dangerous so brought it straight to us, then the light went in the bin.
If it had happened in 2yo DD's bed it may have been a different story!

They need to be banned.Just like washing liquid pods.

Thanks so much for your post- could save a life!
I had no idea about the honey thing and am now going to share it on social media.