More and more Toys sounds, flashes, and moves. They are driven mostly by button batteries, which have also pushed in other devices larger cylinder batteries. For small children they can be dangerous: you have to take the shiny tiles like in the mouth. In the worst case, the batteries end up in the esophagus, the Thin or the bronchi.
Such incidents are piling up, shows a recent analysis from the United States. Had to twenty years ago, an average of 9.5 children out of 10,000 were under the age of six in the emergency room, because they had something to swallow, in the year 2015 is already 18 out of 10,000 children. Thus, the Rate nearly doubled, researchers say Danielle Orsagh-Yentis from the Nationwide Children’s Hospital in Columbus in the journal “Pediatrics”. The data come from the national recording system NEISS.
In about two-thirds of the cases were affected – up to three years. Most often, locking the children of the coins (62 percent) were followed by toy parts (10 per cent), jewellery (7 per cent) and batteries (7 percent).
What should parents pay attention to
Compared with other foreign bodies, the importance of batteries is still small. Their ingestion can have lethal consequences: the batteries in the oesophagus, serious burns, holes, or swelling, which can lead to shortness of breath. Between 1995 and 2010, died in the USA, at least 14 children, because they swallowed batteries, inhaled, or had.
Also in Germany there have been similar deaths, says Florian Eyer, chief physician of the Department of Clinical toxicology/poison emergency call Munich. The inclusion of foreign bodies, in particular button cells, is also a frequent inquiry to the poison emergency call Munich, but also nationwide. The Federal Institute for risk assessment (BfR) has registered in the past ten years, hundreds of cases in which button cells ended up inadvertently in the human body.
If a child swallows a button cell, it should in any case be taken to the hospital, says Eyer. “Where appropriate, there must be an x-ray recording is made or the button cell even recovered endoscopically.” Parents should ensure that small can’t get children to button cells, for example from remote controls and other small vehicles. Particularly, if larger siblings with battery-operated toys live in the household.
Dangerous run BfR, especially the discharge current of the batteries is, if they come in contact with the moist mucous membranes of the esophagus. This is called the hydroxide ion, which can lead to severe burns. Particularly in the case of large button cells with more than two centimeters in diameter, it is likely that they remain in the oesophagus. After a few hours it comes to symptoms such as vomiting, loss of appetite, fever, or cough.
A battery slips up into the stomach, there are, according to the BfR, only rare complications. In these cases, it is usually sufficient, the natural departure of the coin cell under the supervision of a doctor to be seen.
Problem: swallowed magnets
Dangerous it will on the other hand, if a button cell or other object is inhaled, supplemented for children and youth doctor Josef Kahl. In such cases, a chronic Bronchitis threatens to inflammation of the lungs. If parents know that their child has a battery is inhaled, is a diagnosis particularly difficult. The symptoms such as pain, cough and, later, a fever and General suggest that the malaise in many diseases.
Are a Problem in the U.S. according to some researchers, also swallowed the magnets, especially those made of neodymium. The number of surgical interventions due to swallowed magnets have increased in the U.S. between 2002 and 2012, stated in the journal “Pediatrics”. Several are in the digestive tract, they attract and the intestine through holes. Other possible – and also potentially deadly – consequences of the death of tissue, blood poisoning, and constipation.