Disclosure: TMC was paid for this post in sponsorship with Energizer and The Motherhood, Battery Controlled and Safe Kids Worldwide. Opinions and thoughts are TMC’s only.
Three kids can bring a lot of emergency room visits. I should know, I was there just last week when during bedtime the smallest one escaped tooth brushing duties and instead went exploring in my bathroom. Not more than five minutes could have passed when I heard my middle child yell, “MOM! The Fifth Element got into your cough syrup!!” My heart stopped. My cough syrup isn’t OTC, which is bad enough. It was just prescribed for pneumonia and contained codeine. I rushed to her, sniffed her breath, saw a ton of cough syrup on the counter and asked her if she drank it. She burst into tears and I knew she had ingested at least a tiny bit. After fifteen agonizing, but helpful, minutes with Poison Control it was determined that we had to take her to the ER for monitoring. Thus began a long night, but one where I knew she would be safe.
That was cough syrup. It was in a cabinet, high on a shelf, on the fourth floor of my home. Not easy access with its child-proof caps but she got into it anyway in a very short span of time. Now think about other items in your home that might oh, say, lying around in a junk drawer in your kitchen, in a nightstand, or just sitting on a shelf in the basement, closet or other area. I’m talking about batteries, things that most parents have a plethora of in their homes. Lithium batteries, those little coin-sized flat batteries that are in so many of our everyday devices, including our kids toys, books and reading lights.
Did You Know?
– Children ages 4 and under are most susceptible to the dangers of button batteries.
-The number of cases resulting in serious injury or death has more than quadrupled in the past five years compared to the prior five years.
-When a coin lithium button battery gets stuck in a child’s throat, the saliva triggers an electrical current. This causes a chemical reaction that can severely burn the esophagus in as little as two hours.
-Symptoms of coin-sized button battery ingestion may be similar to other childhood illnesses, such as coughing, drooling, and discomfort like pulling or tugging at their chest or throat.
Lithium Battery Uses
-Bathroom Scales
-Singing/Talking Greeting Cards
-Children’s Board books that talk or make music (how many ripped up ones are in your home right now?)
-Remote Controls
-Cell Phones
-Key Fobs
-Digital Cameras
-Watches
The list goes on. Kids like to explore and get into stuff. We all know that. We do our best to protect them from the obvious but these small and flat batteries are often overlooked. Do yourself a favor and your child. Keep remotes safe and out of reach. Hide the batteries in a spot your child cannot get to and frequently monitor the devices in your home that contain these types of Lithium batteries. You can’t be too careful. I once saw my six month old pick up a quarter that had rolled onto the floor and in seconds she put it in her mouth. I was able to retrieve it even after it went down her throat but it was a very tense, frightening few minutes. Quarters won’t cause burning or electrical currents to pass through your child like a battery of the same size can.
Watch Emmett’s story for more information on just how much damage one tiny battery can do to a small child.
Get in on the conversation, learn more about battery safety and win some fun prizes at the Twitter party on September 24 at 12 p.m. ET with Twitter party hosts (@theMotherhood25, @theMotherhood and @CooperMunroe), using the hashtag #batterycontrolled.
Learn more about battery safety. Print this helpful fact sheet out for your home. For more information on child safety and coin lithium battery safety, visit www.nsc.org, www.energizer.com, www.TheBatteryControlled.com and www.poison.org/battery.
