Monday 23 December 2024
Leading Emergency Medicine clinicians are urging parents and carers to be extra cautious with toys containing water beads, button batteries and super strong magnets this festive season.
Doctors are warning these gifts could pose a danger to children and vulnerable adults if swallowed.
The guidance, issued by the Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM), comes ahead of a busy time for present buying and gifting.
RCEM – which represents more than 13,000 emergency clinicians – has today (23 December) issued a ‘water beads and bowel obstruction’ safety flash.
The primary aim of RCEM’s safety flashes is to raise awareness of topical or emerging issues that Emergency Medicine clinicians may encounter while working – however the College is also using the publication as an opportunity to highlight the risks to parents.
Water beads are tiny, often colourful, squishy balls frequently marketed as toys, sensory tools, home décor and vase fillers, or included in art kits, hydro guns and stress balls.
When the beads are exposed to liquid these small objects, which are usually only a few millimetres in size, can expand to more than 400 times in around 36 hours.
Concerningly, if ingested, they are not visible on x-rays, making them incredibly difficult to detect.
The swollen beads can cause bowel obstructions, which may result in the patient needing surgery to remove them.
Due to the dangers, the Office of Product Safety and Standards (OPSS) – the UK’s national product regulator – has acted to remove unsafe water beads from the market.
As well highlighting the risks associated with water beads, RCEM has taken the opportunity to reissue information about other items – button batteries and super strong magnets – which can be dangerous is swallowed.
Dr Salwa Malik, Vice President of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, who herself has a four-year-old son, said, “Any one of these three objects could be found under your tree or in a stocking this festive season, hidden in gifts that are intended to bring joy to a child or vulnerable person. But which, if swallowed, could result in critical illness and the need for emergency medical treatment.
“As an Emergency Medicine doctor, I have seen parents holding their child’s hand and watching over them while they lay on a bed in an Emergency Department, in need of urgent care because they have ingested one of these items.
“As a parent, I can imagine how utterly terrifying and a traumatic that would be to go through – for a mum, dad, grandma, grandpa, aunt, uncle, brother, sister and of course, the child themselves.
“Having seen the effects first hand, which can be devasting and detrimental, we are asking people to please think twice about the dangers these pose while selecting and gifting presents this season.
“We are also raising awareness within EDs by circulating these safety flashes to ensure our colleagues in EDs are aware and informed about the dangers and equipped with the best clinical guidance to treat a child, or vulnerable person should they seek help after swallowing these objects.”
Super strong mini magnets can stick together in the intestines or bowel and can cause injury within eight-24 hours but any symptoms because of ingestion may not show for weeks after. They can erode through the bowel wall, allowing bowel contents to leak out, requiring urgent surgery.
Meanwhile button batteries can be found in a variety of toys and if one is swallowed, it can lodge in their food pipe (oesophagus) and cause serious harm or death due to a chemical reaction which erodes tissue.
More than half of serious outcomes occur after a button or coin cell battery was ingested without anyone witnessing it, which is likely to cause a delay in seeking urgent care, as well as a diagnosis.
