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!

That explains a few things for me so thanks for posting.

I've also never heard of these water beads either. Thanks OP.

Yes. Ditto any dried fruit. I remember reading about a toddler who ended up with a bowel obstruction after swallowing a dried apricot.

Yikes!

Have always been creeped out by Orbeez. They look exactly like things children put in their mouths and shouldn't! This is terrifying!

Bumping too.

Much appreciated and passed on to to everyone I know 🙏

My health visitor put the actual fear of God into me about button batteries. The only toys we allow with button batteries are ones where they are securely held in a compartment that you have to use a screwdriver to open.

Someone else mentioned magnets - according to the same health visitor, apparently some of the most dangerous toys are the magformer-style magnetic tiles, where the magnets are held in thin tubes of plastic. Old or knock-off versions of these are particularly bad for breaking when they are handled roughly by toddlers, and then the magnets can fall out.

I have a SEN child and it actually makes me so angry how many toys aimed at special needs children actually contain these battery’s with flimsy bits of plastic holding them in! We will just not have them in the house at all and have told anyone looking at Christmas gifts to please not buy anything that contains these batteries. My son throws things and also puts everything in his mouth so it’s a risk we can’t take.
It’s a shame because most things we would like to buy him contain them. I don’t know what the solution would be but I wish these were banned in children’s toys

Thank you.

When I was a child I put a leaking rechargeable battery in my mouth and burnt my tongue. I spat it straight out so fortunately it didn’t do any serious damage, but it was very unpleasant.

Thanks OP. I work in a nursery and we received a circular mail a few months ago requesting orbeez or any other brand of water beads were disposed of immediately for this reason.

The orbeez thing does make sense but I’ve never seen one that just keeps getting bigger. They seem to get to a certain size and that’s it. I can see that if you swallowed a few it could become an issue.

But I guess it’s just not worth it. My children are all teens so not an issue and not really a thing when they were small.

Yep thought the water beads were a stupid idea. Product safety alert issued this year, so presumably nurseries will have received notice of this.
https://www.gov.uk/product-safety-alerts-reports-recalls/product-safety-alert-water-beads-psa7

PP mentioned balloons - I wish there was a law against releasing them outside. 'let's celebrate / commemorate by killing some wildlife'.

I’m sure syrup would do the same job (maybe even jam or Nutella if that’s all you have to hand). I think a lot of the cheap honey is mostly sugar and would be very low risk of botulism so I wouldn’t be concerned about that.

Thr school disco had flashing Halloween ring/necklaces as prizes, incredibly cheap and flimsy, tiny button batteries everywhere.

I've just googled and read the same thing. Further down the questions list is states that it is dangerous if dogs swallow them because they expand in the stomach. If they are dangerous to dogs, they're dangerous to humans, too.

That's what I thought too. A health professional can't advise this but a parent can.

Someone told me once that there are children who swallow and injest non food stuff and children that do not. If your baby does this you need to be extra vigilant as they will continue this for a while. Always have a poison hotline number saved. I'm sure NHS has one, I'm not in UK.

THANK YOU! sharing!

Thank you for the post 🙂

Excellent post, thanks so much. I just hope the safety measures re button batteries come in asap.

I've not RTFT so perhaps someone has mentioned it re

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.

Duracell button batteries already have the bitrex (though afaik not the dye which sounds like a very good idea) - I only know about this because the positioning of it means they don't work in our AirTags whereas energiser (currently) do.

So these may be a safer option at the moment than other brands if they work in the device - may be worth considering for hearing aids etc.

www.duracell.co.uk/technology/lithium-coin-battery-safety/

Bump

I'm a parent who uses hearing aids and I'm so careful with these batteries. I always put them back in the pack after use and then recycle them - it's so that I know I haven't lost one.

The Duracell link has a few fairly obvious tips like taping up the battery compartments on devices that don't have screws.

Great information, thank you. My 16 month old got hold of a tea light from our Halloween pumpkin just the other day, obviously I took it off him before he could take the button battery out but I can see how easily it happens. I didn’t know that about honey.

I have always been petrified of button batteries for this reason. I did have to buy one for some kitchen scales the other day and noticed that Duracell batteries have started making baby proof button batteries that taste horrible if put in the mouth.

It's weird how they are getting away with saying they are non toxic and safe for children - surely this is a massive safety issue.

You're right if there is a risk to dogs then obviously there's a risk to children.