No, DS, you are *not* a piggybank...

[Gizmo]

DS (4.5) managed to round off a perfectly pleasant weekend by swallowing a penny on Sunday evening. I left him alone with his dinner and a small pile of loose change on the table and the next thing I hear is horrendous gagging/choking . Although it was quickly obvious he was not choking (thank God) it did hurt as it went down, poor little soul, and not even the promise of his own personal ambulance cheered him up.
I think it brought a little light into the life of the paramedic who turned up, though, because he got to use line no 47b from the paramedic's Bumper Book of Jokes as he entered the door...
'Have you seen any change yet?'
Anyway, trip to hospital, DS's first x-ray (fascinating stuff for DS) confirms there is a penny sitting happily in his tummy. So now for the fun part of the process as we wait for the penny to make it's reappearance. DS confined to poos on potty for now and I'm resigned to a life where I become more intimately acquainted with his poo than I want to be when he's 4.5
But, the big question is, when should I expect the happy event? Docs say between 24 hours and 6 weeks but does anyone have any first hand experience of how quickly foreign objects 'travel' as it were?
Or do I have to face a lifetime of explaining to sceptical security guards why DS keeps setting off metal detectors in airports?

I have no idea but it's happened quite a few times to children on Mumsnet!

Yes, I know it's not very original .

Thing is, it was our first trip to A&E (at least for DS - DH is a regular!) and I was hoping for something a little more outre, if you know what I mean; maybe a saucepan stuck on the head at a jaunty angle, a toy soldier superglued in his ear or possibly his foot stuck in a giant comedy dinosaur.

I mean, swallowing a penny after all the opportunities I've given him, too!

So?? You should have left him with a pile of novelty objets and a tube of superglue then. You only have yourself to blame... pile of loose change indeed. :o

Wow - are you supposed to ring for an ambulance for a swallowed penny? Just curious in case it ever happens to mine.

Oh I rang the ambulance because:

a) DS was making very dramatic choking noises (credit where credit's due: he may not have chosen a particularly exciting introduction to the world of small boy accidents, but he does know how to work it for every ounce of drama)
b) I didn't know quite what to do (airhead emoticon) knew NHS direct would take ages to get back to me
c) If something had been seriously amiss and I had fannied around trying to look it up in a book/waiting for doctor to ring me back, then I really wouldn't forgive myself.

If he'd just come up to me and complained about swallowing a penny without all the drama, then I'd have been a bit more relaxed...

So, no general opinion on the length of a small boy's bowels then???

Soupdragon: thing is - we have left him with a pile of novelty objects and some superglue. Nothing happened...

Not to mention the memorable day when I caught him chasing his little friend round and round the sofa. With a power drill.

Luckily not plugged in

My DD swallowed a plastic jewel (bit smaller than a 1p) when she was about 3.

From what I remember about 24 hrs later a poo decorated with a beautiful pink heart-shaped jewel made an appearance!

Oooh, stylish!