I don't care if I am. I could save your child's life

[batterychicken]

I am a colorectal surgeon and we have had to perform 5 emergency operations in 2 weeks related to button batteries but this is so far from the normal, it is increasing exponentially

If you suspect your child or elderly person with dementia or anyone with SEND and who has difficulty communicating has swallowed a button battery and I mean if you even notice the compartment on a battery operated toy or tea light is open and missing and you didn't see you child swallow it. GO IMMEDIATELY TO A&E button batteries and shiny, easy to grab for
Toddler and easy to confuse for tablets for elderly patients

If your child is over the age of 12 months old give 2 teaspoons of honey every 10 mins until you reach hospital. This is crucial and will coat the battery so it doesn't burn the oesophagus or intestines.

Yes it's not ideal if the child needs surgery but there are emergency procedures we can do to minimise risk of aspiration and the risk of aspiration of honey is less than the risk posed of the battery.

In the US, all energiser branded button batteries are coated to taste bitter and covered in a safe dye that dyes the tongue and mouth blue. This is being rolled out the Uk slowly but surely.

There are photos online portraying the damage that honey does to the battery on the slice of ham but it's not to be looked at because the whole point of the honey is to coat the battery and help it not stay too long in one place and move through the digestive tract.

I will also add these absolutely horrific orbeez things to this thread but really they need banning from the world.

If your nursery or child care provider uses them in sensory play, please tell them to stop or move child care providers (hard I know) but orbeez feel brilliant to children and when they have no taste so when they're exploring orally it's very very easy to eat them. And you can't see them on xray until they're a certain size and even then they look like built up gas in the bowel. Obviously if the child has ingested loads then they you see them. However if it's one or 2 they can be tiny when swallowed but they continue to expand and expand, they can case major bowel obstructions.

Please do this. No orbeez and keep and eye out for button batteries (god why are they in so many toys??!)

First photo is a button battery on ham for 30
Mins, second photos is an orbeez removed from
A child and the 3rd shows you how many much they can expand from
The original.

Don't let it impact your life but just keep it at the forefront

If this stops 1 more family from meeting me for surgery on their child then good!

Thank you for this @batterychicken - I fully agree and think it’s something that there should be far more warnings about!

Our son is now 4 but I had an incident with MIL giving DS cheap remote controls to play with because they had lots of buttons. She was playing with him one day when he was about 1 while I cooked dinner at her house (we were supposed to be starting to leave them alone together for short periods of time as she had asked to look after him one day a week when I was at work) and I walked back into the lounge to find him shaking 2 button batteries together in his hand to listen to the toys they made 😳🙄 Obviously they were immediately removed and I showed MIL all the dangers of them etc and she rolled her eyes at me and told me I was being ridiculous. She absolutely refused to believe about the dangers because “people have gone health and safety mad these days” 🙄 Same issue with cutting food appropriately and car seats.
Needless to say, childcare plans were immediately reviewed and it’s the first and only time she’s been alone with my child 🤷🏻‍♀️

Orbeez are terrifying! I don’t understand how they get away with marketing them towards children given the health risks. Its horrendous. We’ve had a few sets of water bead type things received as birthday presents over the last couple of years for DS and they have been removed immediately.

There was a post on here recently about a nursery using tea lights with these batteries ( no screwed) and people said the op was over reacting when she demanded the nursery not to use them - they were allowing the children access. She was bang on. Even if it was a fake post the message is the same. I couldn’t believe people thought she was overacting.

I work in paediatrics and i’ve seen it/heard stories. lThank you for your post

Thank you. I'm always very careful with batteries in general, even sellotaped up the TV controls but the honey tip will be remembered.

Thank you very much for spreading this important message.

Honey thing is a good idea, knew about the orbeez

Just to say - give them honey under 12 months in the situation. The risk of infant botulism from honey is microscopically low (0 cases in the UK) whereas the risk from the battery is enormous and certain.

My elderly partially sighted mum mistook a hearing aid battery for her tablet many years ago. She didn't tell me until weeks later. She did nothing. She was lucky.

Jesus christ, awful! Thanks for the warning and advice

Great advice thank you x

Thank you for the warning. Very scary and must be traumatic to deal with as a doctor too.

Thank you for this - especially the information about batteries.

I’m at the other end of the care process, having an elderly DH with dementia. He does sometimes fiddle with things and put things in his mouth thinking they are sweets or otherwise edible. I will definitely be more vigilant in future.

Thank you for this. I'd noticed on a couple of electrical items that I've purchased recently that the battery compartment actually had a small screw keeping the lid on that you need to get a screwdriver to undo in addition to using the normal lever.

When I first noticed this it really did annoy me as I didn't have the appropriate screwdriver. But now, after having read this here, it makes perfect sense why they are doing it.

Button batteries I knew about, I've had the fear ever since I saw a families story on TikTok or somewhere where their little girl died after swallowing one after it destroyed her oesophagus. Put the fear into me.

Orbeez I've never heard of but I have a 4 year old so will be on alert.

I'm a paediatric nurse and we have too many children admitted with ingested batteries. Most of them are lucky to be alive.

What is an orbeeze?

Yep. Also had kids on for laprotomies when the magnets stick together.

Thank you

Hearing aid batteries and older relatives is definitely a risk- it always drove me mad when they were left out.

I didn’t know about the honey- that’s a good tip that people should know.

Mumsnet please pin this post!

On the way to A&E give the person a spoonful of honey, it can delay the effects of the battery until surgery can be performed

I hadn’t heard of orbeez either, so had a google. The first link I found on Amazon warned about the problem of disposing of them down the sewer system,but sadly didn’t mention the danger of them blocking a child’s digestive system.

Thank you for the post @batterychicken .

I would definitely add puppies to your list of family members who might eat batteries.

I work with the deaf and am constantly warning my clients about the dangers of button batteries. I write a warning in big red capital letters on all of my reports!

If I ever drop a battery anywhere I will not rest until I find it. I also worry about the danger to animals ( my DDs puppy is a real scavenger )

Thanks for this important reminder as lots of people are just not aware of the dangers.

Thank you for the important warning. I knew about batteries and I’ve taken my toddler to A&E for an X-ray before on the tiny chance she might have swallowed one, but I didn’t know about Orbeez.
Can I also add popped/deflated balloons to the list of hazards? I used to crawl round picking up fragments at birthday parties. I think these are more of a choking risk than a bowel hazard.

My in laws could be like this, I once came back to my 1 year old sat alone in a paddling pool that was quite deep! They’ve got an upstairs window that’s quite low (old house), that they refused to shut even though a child could have easily fallen out of it.

Refused to cut up grapes!! It was very stressful whenever they went there.

But thanks Op for highlighting this. The government needs to do more if it’s happening this often!