The number of children being rushed to the emergency rooms for battery-related injuries has more than doubled in the recent past, according to a latest CDC report.
Officials from U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) used data from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) on the non-fatal battery injuries among children 13 years and younger between 1997 and 2010.
About 40,400 children were affected by battery-related injuries between 1997 and 2010. Though the number was 1,900 in 1998, incidents shot up to 4,800 in 2010. Majority of the children were four-years-old and younger. In more than half of the cases, button batteries were found to be the main culprit. While one in 10 children needed admission to the emergency room, health experts couldn't save 14 of them.
The battery swallowing incidents become complicated when these batteries fail to pass through the gastrointestinal tract and get collected in the esophagus. Battery lodged in the esophagus can lead to burns within two hours after the incident. According to the investigators, delay in diagnosing or treating the condition can even claim lives, as occurred with nine out of 14 children who died.
The recent increase in the use of the button batteries were found to be one of the reasons leading to the increased number of severe battery ingestions and insertions. The symptoms related to battery ingestion can range from vomiting, abdominal pain, fever, diarrhea, respiratory distress, and dysphagia.
Earlier this year, in May a study conducted by the Nationwide Children's Hospital and published in the journal Pediatrics, found the battery related emergency department visits by minors almost doubling in a 20 years duration. While trying to find out the source of the batteries, the investigators noticed young children easily accessing the batteries from household products like watches (14 percent), remote controls (6percent), calculators (12 percent) and flashlights (9percent) than toys.
Following are some of the recommendations from CPSC for parents to prevent the battery related incidents apart from stressing on the mandatory child-proof battery compartments in toys and other child-related equipment:
- Keep remotes and electronic items powered by button batteries away from children's reach
- Dispose of the batteries carefully
- Do not give batteries to children for playing
- If the electronic equipments do not have screws to secure their battery compartments, use tape.
