Did your child ingest a dead battery? There is not a minute to lose

They are no bigger than a nickel, but the damage they can cause, if ingested, they are serious.

They are found everywhere, in kitchen utensils, watches, toys, music books, remote controls … These small, round, flat lithium batteries, if swallowed, can cause sometimes irreversible damageand it can also be mortal.

Lithium batteries: accidents on the rise

In 20 years, the number of accidents caused by ingesting these small batteries has increased by four. This is why this campaign was launched by the health authorities and Parisian hospitals.

In The Parisian, Florence Campeotto, pediatrician specializing in gastroenterology at the Necker-Enfants Malades hospital in Paris, explains:

From 1 July 2021 to 30 June 2022, we detected 50 cases of ingestion by children in AP-HP hospitals in the Ile-de-France region.. At Paris Samu, 25 calls were handled last year for this type of problem, three of which were life threatening. These are, from time to time, pediatric emergencies that need to be treated as quickly as possible.

Florence Campeotto for The Parisian

But what happens in the baby’s body when the baby ingests a button battery? Explains Camille Joly, of Pediatric Samu at Necker Hospital Parisian That ” the battery can cause burns as early as 30 minutes after ingestion “But also that” the child can also asphyxiate “.

Florence Campeotto completes Camille Joly’s words, specifying the effects on the mucous membranes of a button cell:

This causes necrosis within hours and, if nothing is done, leads to perforation, before internal bleeding if an artery is hit.

Indeed, if a button battery is ingested, it is a race against time. The battery should spend as little time as possible in the baby’s body. A drama told by Parisian Camille, the mother of young Zadig, who inadvertently swallowed a button battery at the nanny’s house last spring.

After calling the fire department in an emergency, the child had to pass an X-ray to locate the battery, then surgery to remove it urgently. The battery would only stay in the baby’s body two hours, which would have been enough the baby’s esophagus becomes necrotic five centimeters. Although, very fortunately, the little boy did not retain any lasting consequences, he still had to be fed gastric tube for a month, after spending ten days in the hospital.

Ingesting a coin cell battery: what to do?

If you are responsible for a child who has just ingested a coin cell battery and was ingested correctly (without causing choking), here’s what you should do, according to a press release from the Haute Autorité de Santé:

• Call emergency services immediately (15 or a poison control center)
• Do not try to make the baby vomit
• Don’t give him a drink
• Don’t feed him
• Don’t give him medicine
• Make him sit down reassuring him, waiting for the rescue intervention

Once cared for, the baby will pass an x-ray to locate the battery, and the battery will be removed as soon as possible. Do not wait for the battery to discharge itself through natural channels, the damage done inside the body by the object could be terrible, even fatal. It must be removed by doctors as soon as possible.

To avoid such a tragedy, Florence Campeotto urges parents to pay attention by giving some recommendations:

Most of the crates we receive come from children who have stolen a battery from the box in which parents keep those “used” for recycling or those “that can still be used”. It is therefore important to ensure access to these boxes as much as possible to keep them out of the reach of children.

Duracell, the famous battery brand, has joined the health authorities’ prevention campaign. Since 2018 he has had his packaging modified making it tamper-proof by the little ones, using a double plastic shell and individual packaging, and also has a very bitter taste adhesive glued directly on the pile, to cause a rejection effect from the child’s mouth and to avoid ingestion.

Of course, it would be better not to use this type of batteries, only from an ecological point of view. But it is very difficult to escape, and knowing the right gestures can save lives.

Photo credit image of one: Hroe