What will swallowing batteries do to you

Many communities have battery drop-off bins where you can take used batteries. Don't make your child throw up. The battery could cause injury on the way out. Don't let your child eat or drink except for the honey. Even with these precautions in place, kids still can get hurt and accidents do happen. But being prepared will help you to act quickly and confidently in the event of an emergency.

Reviewed by: Melanie L. Pitone, MD. Larger text size Large text size Regular text size. What Are Button Batteries? A swallowed button battery or one in the nose or ears is an emergency. Also: Make sure all battery compartments are securely closed with a screw. A wide variety of things in the home are powered by button batteries — also known as coin batteries — but they can cause severe problems if swallowed by a child.

This information page from Great Ormond Street Hospital GOSH explains the risks of swallowing a button battery, what treatment might be required if your child swallows one and how to prevent it happening in the first place.

Batteries work by mixing two chemicals together to create electrical energy — they only work when a circuit is created.

Button or coin batteries are the tiny flat circular batteries that are used to power many objects around the home including:. The problems caused by button batteries are not usually due to chemicals leaking from the battery but because the battery itself reacts with bodily fluids, such as mucus or saliva.

This creates a circuit to release a substance like caustic soda, which is a strong alkali that can burn through tissue. An alkaline substance is at the opposite end of the pH scale to an acid but is just as dangerous.

This will usually be carried out while the child is under general anaesthetic. They will also be able to look at the damage caused by the button battery through the endoscope to decide what further treatment is needed.

Doctors can also use an endoscope to remove batteries inserted in the nose or ear. Depending on the amount of damage caused by the battery or if they are unable to remove it safely, the child may be transported to a specialist hospital such as Great Ormond Street Hospital GOSH for further treatment. This may create a passage fistula between the oesophagus and the trachea windpipe. It may also have damaged the vocal cords. It may have burned through the blood vessels in the chest area, including the aorta main blood vessel leading from the heart.

All of these problems require treatment, often with repeated operations which may include tracheo-oesophageal fistula repair, oesophageal resection to remove the damaged portion or oesophageal dilatation to widen the damaged section. They are slippery and easily swallowed. Don't mistake batteries for pills. Don't store batteries near pills or in pill bottles.

Look at every medicine you intend to swallow. Turn on the lights, put on your glasses, read the label and look at the medicine itself. If you use a hearing aid, these steps are especially important. All too often, the tiny hearing aid batteries are ingested with or instead of medications.

Avoid storing or leaving batteries where they might be mistaken for, or swallowed with, food. Don't leave batteries in drinking glasses or adjacent to nuts, candy, popcorn or other finger foods. Prompt action is critical. Don't wait for symptoms to develop. Batteries stuck in the esophagus must be removed as quickly as possible as severe damage can occur in just 2 hours.

Batteries in the nose or ear also must be removed immediately to avoid permanent damage. Swallowed a battery? Get help from the battery ingestion hotline immediately CALL