Medical professionals from Australian Pediatric Surveillance Unit at Sydney Children’s Hospital Network, published a report in World Journal of Pediatrics that we link to below. In nutshell they say button batteries endanger kids still, despite all the efforts to prevent this. What follows may not be suitable for sensitive readers.
How Button Batteries Endanger Kids Still
The team from the Pediatric Surveillance Unit conducted a systematic review, after they pooled their data with three other sources. Their broad approach included the following two steps:
- Identify cases where children under eighteen developed complications after exposure to button batteries.
- Calculate the odds of serious injury, using binary logistic regression to calculate the likelihood of this happening.
The team analyzed seventeen studies that involved 439 children in total. Of these, 90% of the incidents involved ingesting button batteries.The gender mix was fairly balanced. There was clear evidence that button batteries endanger kids when little children swallow them:
- Feeding and breathing difficulties were present in approximately half the cases.
- Common injuries included damage to digestive, breathing, and nasal passages.
- The intestine that processes food was perforated in 2.5% of the cases in the study.
- Many children who died had damaged vascular systems, that circulated their blood.
- The fatalities were kids older than 2 years, who were exposed to batteries for more than 6 hours.
- Batteries larger than 3/4 inch diameter became stuck, and caused severe complications .
Significant Conclusions From This Study
Button battery injuries are time critical, affect younger children, and can be difficult to diagnose. Button batteries still endanger kids despite upgraded regulations in North America and Australia.
We suspect that this is because those new rules focus on battery packaging, and not a more fundamental problem. Some observers believe button batteries need to be redesigned. From where we sit, we believe this is something worth carefully considering.
More Information
Another Button Battery Kills Another Child
Honey After Swallowing Button Batteries
