LEADING doctors have issued a warning to parents this Christmas amid an increase in children admitted to hospital for swallowing small objects.
The number of young people taken to hospital after ingesting small objects has doubled over the last 10 years to 228, data from the NHS shows.
GettyParents have been warned to stay vigilant when it comes to children’s gifts this year[/caption]
Surgeons have had to perform life-saving operations to remove button batteries, magnetic balls and Christmas cracker toys in previous years.
Medics said, this season, they are particularly concerned about about “small button batteries”.
These make up part of several “high-profile Christmas gifts” and also charge festive lights, TV remotes and even festive greetings cards.
Experts warned that the penny-sized batteries can burn through a young person’s throat.
They can also burn through the food pipe or other internal body part, in a very short period of time if swallowed, causing irreversible damage, the NHS said.
Top children’s doctor at NHS England, Professor Simon Kenny, said: “The last thing anyone wants is to spend Christmas at the hospital with their child undergoing life-saving surgery.
“But unfortunately we are seeing an increase in the number of children at hospital because they have swallowed an object – double the number we had 10 years ago.
“The consequences can be devastating.”
NHS figures show 228 children younger than 14 were admitted to hospital last year because they had swallowed a small object.
It was double the 115 cases in 2012.
Surgeons often have to operate to remove metal from the throat or stomach and ops can take hours.
Earlier this year, the parents of Little Hughie McMahon, told how their baby son died after swallowing a button battery.
Mum Christine McDonald, 32, and dad Hugh McMahon, 29 cradled him as he passed away.
Precious Hughie died after a battery he swallowed turned his blood “acidic” — and burned a five pence-sized hole in his heart, his grieving parents revealed.
In 2021, Harper-Lee Farnthorpe, two, started vomiting blood and was rushed to hospital for emergency surgery, but sadly passed away after also swallowing a button battery.
The tot was raced to A&E where doctors administered nine units of blood after she lost half the blood in her small body.
The Child Accident Prevention Trust estimates one or two children die every year from swallowing batteries.
Chief executive Katrina Phillips said: “Give presents a quick check as soon as they’re unwrapped.
“Look out for gifts with easy-access or spare button batteries and put them out of your child’s reach. If a toy breaks and the battery drops out, pick it up as soon as you can.
“And if you think your child has swallowed a button battery, don’t delay – get them to A&E straight away.”