Baby Swallowed Something

When to get help

Call emergency services or go straight to an emergency department — 999 in the UK, 112 or 999 in Ireland and across the EU, 911 in the US and Canada, 000 in Australia, 111 in New Zealand — if your baby has, or might have, swallowed any of these, even if they look completely well:

• A button battery or lithium coin battery, or one that is missing from a device.
• More than one magnet, or a magnet plus anything metal.
• Anything sharp: a pin, a needle, a broken piece of plastic, glass, a nail.
• Medicine, a vape or nicotine product, alcohol, a cleaning product, a detergent capsule, or an unknown plant or berry.

Call emergency services immediately, whatever was swallowed, if your baby is choking, cannot breathe, is drooling and unable to swallow, is making a noise on breathing in that was not there before, is vomiting blood, has blood in the nappy, or is floppy or unusually drowsy.

Seek urgent same-day advice — NHS 111 in the UK, your GP or out-of-hours service in Ireland, your paediatrician in the US or Canada, healthdirect on 1800 022 222 in Australia, Healthline on 0800 611 116 in New Zealand — for a swallowed coin, bead, small toy part or similar smooth object in a baby who is breathing and swallowing normally. Most pass, but a coin lodged in the gullet is common enough that an assessment is standard.

Why a button battery is different

This is the part most parents do not know, and it is the reason this page opens the way it does. A button battery does not have to leak, and it does not have to be new, to cause harm. The American Academy of Pediatrics explains that when a battery touches body fluids it generates a current, and that current produces sodium hydroxide, a corrosive similar to lye. If the battery is stuck anywhere in the body, the chemical burns a hole at that spot.

The AAP is explicit that a battery which no longer powers a device still holds enough charge to do this, and that the higher the voltage — a 3V coin cell rather than a 1.5V — the faster the injury develops. It also warns that symptoms may be virtually absent at first, or look like an ordinary infection, which is exactly why waiting to see whether your baby becomes unwell is the wrong plan.

Batteries put in the nose or ear are the same emergency. There may be discharge or pain, and the damage to the eardrum or the nasal septum can be permanent.

Why magnets are different too

One small smooth magnet usually behaves like any other small swallowed object. Two or more are a different problem. If they end up in separate loops of bowel they attract each other through the bowel wall, pinch the tissue between them, and cut off its blood supply. That can perforate the bowel and it can happen without any early warning signs. The same applies to one magnet plus a swallowed metal object.

Small, strong rare-earth magnets from desk toys, fridge letters, magnetic building sets and fake piercings are the usual culprits. If a set is missing pieces and you cannot account for them, say so at the hospital.

What not to do

Do not try to make your baby sick. Both the NHS and the HSE are clear that inducing vomiting is not recommended after poisoning, and it does not help with a swallowed object either; a corrosive or a battery does further damage on the way back up.

Do not give food or drink while you are heading to hospital. Your baby may need a general anaesthetic to have the object removed, and a recent feed delays that.

Do not fish around in your baby's mouth with your fingers or with tweezers unless you can clearly see an object and lift it out easily. Blind sweeps push things further down. And do not wait to see whether it appears in a nappy.

What to take with you

Take the packaging, the device the battery came out of, an identical battery or magnet if you have one, or the box the toy came in. Knowing the exact size and voltage changes how urgently a hospital acts, and an X-ray is much easier to interpret when the team knows what they are looking for.

Note the time as closely as you can, and whether your baby had been eating. If more than one object could be missing, count what is left rather than guessing.

Coins and other smooth objects

A swallowed coin in a baby who is breathing and swallowing normally is usually straightforward, but it is not a home-observation job in a baby under one. Coins are the object that most often lodges in the gullet, and a baby cannot tell you it feels stuck. Expect an X-ray to locate it. If it has reached the stomach it will usually pass on its own and you will be asked to watch nappies; if it is in the gullet it needs removing.

Ring straight away if a baby who was thought to be fine starts refusing feeds, drooling, gagging, coughing repeatedly, or making a new noise on breathing.

Stopping it happening again

Tape shut the battery compartments of remote controls, key fobs, kitchen scales, thermometers, flashing shoes, light-up toys, musical cards and tea lights. Store spare batteries out of reach and out of sight, and wrap used ones in tape before disposing of them, because a used battery is still dangerous. Keep magnetic desk toys and small magnets out of any room a baby is in. Do the crawl test: get down on the floor at your baby's eye level and see what is actually reachable.