A scary new pictures showing what happens when a child swallows a battery have been shared on social media, in a bid to raise awareness about the dangers of the common household item.
The pictures were taken by CPR kids, an Australian website who specialise in empowering parents and carers to ‘to act confidently in an emergency involving a baby or child’, and later also turned into a video.
Alongside the post, they wrote:
”All parents and grandparents need to watch this. We made this video to show you what can happen in just minutes.
Button batteries are common in toys, musical cards, remote controls, car keys and much more. If swallowed, they can cause life threatening injuries in just minutes.
Please, keep them out of reach, and make sure any toys containing button batteries have a screw securing the battery compartment.”
The website used chicken breast to show how the effects of the battery, taking pictures after a few hours so people can see the corrosion caused by the battery.
Speaking about why they decided to do it, the website’s founder Sarah Hunstead said:
”I was inspired to do this particular experiment after a trip to the supermarket with my oldest daughter. We were walking down the baby products aisle – she stopped and picked up a small object off the shelf where the baby toys were – my daughter said ‘MUM! LOOK! a button battery! That is so dangerous!’
Looking around I saw an opened packet on the shelf that obviously a shopper had left there – did they not understand how incredibly dangerous these items are?
I decided that we needed to show what damage these batteries can do, so I put some chicken fillets in my trolley and my daughters and I did the time-lapse photos that afternoon.”
When swallowed, batteries can react with the fluids inside the body and cause significant damage to the oesophagus, as it can burn through the tissue and form a hole.
If your child swallows a battery button, immediately get them to a hospital and find out what type of battery they swallowed if possible.
