Keep Remotes Away From Toddlers During Moving and Packing

The biggest danger most people associate with moving is the likelihood of a strained back or sore muscles. But health news this week is reminding us that if young children are around, it is wise to be especially careful while packing or unpacking electronic gadgets that might contain lithium batteries.

Lithium batteries, which look like buttons, are used to provide power for everything from television remote controls to singing electronic greeting cards. It is very important to keep electronic gadgets -- especially remote controls -- away from children. If parents rely on television to entertain children while they pack or move, they must make sure that children are not left alone with a remote control. Even a toddler can remove the button battery from a television remote -- with disastrous or fatal consequences.

Teething babies and toddlers, who like to put everything they find into their mouths, and preschoolers, who may mistake the button batteries for candy, are most at risk. Parents and caregivers commonly believe that the biggest risk from batteries is the possibility that a child might choke. Button cell batteries are indeed a choking hazard, but they are also much more dangerous. The water moisture in the mouth and esophagus can conduct electricity, allowing an electric current to flow out of the battery, burning children internally. The longer the battery stays in the body, the more severe the damage is likely to be. Some children require feeding tubes for the rest of their lives after swallowing a battery.

“It’s like drain opener or lye....It’s not something you want in the esophagus of your child,” Dr. Toby Litovitz explained in a New York Times article about 13-month-old Aidan Truett of Hamilton, Ohio, who died last fall after swallowing a button battery. Litovitz wrote two articles about the button batteries for the journal Pediatrics.

The button battery that Aidan swallowed burned through his esophagus and into his heart, in a chemical reaction that continued for two days after the battery was surgically removed. To this day, Aidan’s parents do not know where he got the button battery. “This is something I would never want another parent to live with,” Aidan’s mother, Michelle Truett, said in The New York Times. “I was oblivious as to how dangerous they were.”

Amy Vasquez, the mother of Kaiden Vasquez, who also was hurt by a swallowed battery, agreed, telling the Times, “I don’t allow any of those disc batteries into my home....I never thought a remote would do so much damage to my child.” Kaiden lived through his experience, but the battery burned a hole in his esophagus and trachea, and he had to be fed through a tube for two months.

Most of the time parents do not realize that a child has swallowed a battery until it shows up later on x-rays. But by then, serious damage has already been done. A lithium battery can cause severe damage within the first two hours after it is ingested. It is unusual for children to die after swallowing a battery, but severe injuries are becoming more common as battery technology improves. Batteries are stronger and last longer than they used to. When children do die after swallowing a battery, the battery is almost always the 20-mm size, the kind that is used in television remotes.  

Manufacturers who put button batteries in toys and books for children are required to tightly secure the battery compartments, so that children cannot remove batteries unless they happen to be very skilled with a screwdriver. But there are no such rules regarding batteries in common household items that are not meant to be handed to children, such as television remotes, watches, and garage door openers.

Although children are at risk for accidental ingestion of objects at any time, the risk is much higher at times when a parent’s attention is distracted, such as during packing and moving. In addition, the disruption caused by packing can result in children having access to many electronic items that might ordinarily be kept out of their reach.If possible, set up a safe, childproofed area to use while packing, and keep items that are being sorted and packed out of that space. One option is to use child safety gates or to move furniture, such as sofas, so that they block toddlers from leaving the room. Another option is to  place babies and toddlers in a crib or playpen if it is necessary to leave them unsupervised for a few minutes. 

Sources used:

“Deadly batteries that are cute as a button.” Consumer Reports. June 2, 2010.

Parker-Pope, Tara. “For very young, peril lurks in lithium cell batteries.” The New York Times. May 31, 2010.