St. Pete doctors see uptick in children ingesting hazardous household items: 'One pill can kill'

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. - Doctors with Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital have seen an uptick in cases of kids accidentally swallowing and ingesting hazardous items around the house.

Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital cases increase

The backstory:

Physicians with Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital told FOX 13 they see these kinds of cases all year round, but changes in adult supervision – which can happen during summer months – can contribute to the rise in accidental ingestions.

 Adults, who may not normally watch children, often take over caregiving duties during the summer. And those caregivers might not be accustomed to putting dangerous items away.

 "If you have a grandparent who has loose pills in their purse, and they don't think much of it. And the child is going through the purse, playing, and they see it — they think it's candy — and so they'll take it," Dr. Ebony Hunter, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital, said. "Or you have an aunt or a family member who's dropped the pill, and they say, ‘Oh, I'll find that later.’ And the kids on the floor are at a different eye level, and they see it. And again, they think it's something they can eat."

Child household ingestion hazards

Why you should care:

There are three main categories of items that children frequently ingest:

• Pills (medications)
• Toys that have button batteries in them or toys that are magnets
• THC products

 If a child swallows any of these items, caregivers should go to the emergency room immediately and call Poison Control for guidance on the way.

Pills and medications

What we know:

Johns Hopkins All Children's Hospital reminds caregivers that "one pill can kill," especially diabetes, blood pressure, or mental health medications. Pills can impact how a child’s heart and brain function.

 "If there's ever a question as to how many pills your child has taken, we need to see them because we would rather be safe than sorry," Hunter said. "It also depends on the type of pills. And so, depending on the size of the child, how many [pills], we practice more caution than anything, and so we will monitor a child if we don't know."

 Toy risks: Button batteries and magnets

Big picture view:

Toys containing button batteries pose a severe risk because if swallowed, these batteries can burn a child's esophagus. If a child – above the age of one — swallows a button battery, doctors recommend giving them honey and immediately heading to the emergency room.

Magnets are another major hazard because swallowing more than one can cause them to connect, which can squeeze or flip a child's intestines.

THC products

THC products like edibles can trigger seizures. Many of these products can look like gummies or chocolate.

"Because (kids) are so small — and it only takes a little bit of marijuana to cause an intoxication — they can be at risk for seizures pretty quickly," Hunter said. "And so again, if you think that they've gotten into anyone's THC products, we recommend that you bring them right away for us to evaluate and monitor them."

Emergency response to ingestions

What you can do:

If any of these items are ingested, parents should not push water, as doctors prefer children to have empty stomachs if surgery or a scope is required to remove the object.

 Caregivers should also not encourage vomiting.

"You can cause more damage that way, especially if the child is becoming altered — they are becoming, like, out of it, like, lethargic — then they can actually inhale that vomit," Hunter said. "So, we don't want that vomit in the lungs, and we definitely don’t want those pills and medicines in the lung either."

Florida case 

Dig deeper:

A two-year-old Brevard County girl died after ingesting Kratom pills belonging to her father, according to the West Melbourne Police Department. Investigators made the announcement Wednesday. According to our partners at FOX 35, the arrested father and another woman were scheduled to go before a judge Thursday.