Child Swallows 37 Magnets

[scotpens]

A 3-year-old girl in Portland, Oregon is expected to make a full recovery after suffering damage to her intestines and stomach when she swallowed 37 Buckyball rare-earth magnets.



Fortunately she’s doing okay, so here come the jokes:

Her parents became concerned when she kept walking north.

For such a young child, she certainly has a magnetic personality.

“In all the research I have done, I have never seen any child swallow more than 10 magnets,” said Sandy Nipper, R.N., from Randall Children’s Hospital at Legacy Emanuel’s Safety Store.

Well, that explains why she did it — she wanted to get in the Guinness record book!

[Lumi]

.......Ah. Poor baby. This is why you don't leave little kids alone for any reason. They will always find something to get into.

[J. Allen]

Aw. Bless her little heart, I'm glad she's okay, though!
That's why anything small enough to be eaten gets put as high up as possible when my niece and nephew visit!

[Kelso]

Lumi wrote:

---

.......Ah. Poor baby. This is why you don't leave little kids alone for any reason. They will always find something to get into.

While that would be ideal... you can't watch a kid 24/7. I wish you could!

I'm glad this little girl is okay!

[Trekker4747]

Magnets? How do they work?

What are the chances this child was Tachy or they shared some relation?

Okay, now that I got the jokes out of the way, my heart goes to this girl too, but one wonders how she managed to swallow so many. Was she not being supervised?

[Kestra]

They look like the small magnets so 37 isn't really that insane. It would be relatively easy to swallow them, I would think.

Also kids eat all sorts of crap when no one is looking. I chewed off part of a plastic cup and swallowed it. My sister swallowed a house key when my mom turned around for just a few seconds. She turned back around and the key was gone, but my sister had a smirk on her face. It's not necessarily negligence, but it does highlight the need for children to be supervised and be in a child-safe environment. Most parents do the best they can, I presume.

[Lumi]

Kelso wrote:

---

While that would be ideal... you can't watch a kid 24/7. I wish you could!

I'm glad this little girl is okay!

Maybe not, but in that case, don't leave stuff like that in their reach. It only takes a moment to move a potentially dangerous item some place higher.

[J. Allen]

Kestra wrote:

---

They look like the small magnets so 37 isn't really that insane. It would be relatively easy to swallow them, I would think.

Also kids eat all sorts of crap when no one is looking. I chewed off part of a plastic cup and swallowed it. My sister swallowed a house key when my mom turned around for just a few seconds. She turned back around and the key was gone, but my sister had a smirk on her face. It's not necessarily negligence, but it does highlight the need for children to be supervised and be in a child-safe environment. Most parents do the best they can, I presume.

Yeah, these magnets are the tiny little ball magnets, not much bigger than a tic-tac a piece, if that. It would be fairly easy to swallow a bunch of them in a matter of seconds.

[Trekker4747]

Kestra wrote:

---

They look like the small magnets so 37 isn't really that insane. It would be relatively easy to swallow them, I would think.

Also kids eat all sorts of crap when no one is looking. I chewed off part of a plastic cup and swallowed it. My sister swallowed a house key when my mom turned around for just a few seconds. She turned back around and the key was gone, but my sister had a smirk on her face. It's not necessarily negligence, but it does highlight the need for children to be supervised and be in a child-safe environment. Most parents do the best they can, I presume.

I dunno, 37 sounds like quite a lot to me, looking it up real quick I would guess the magnets were from a office toy like this:

LINK

Which, really, small stuff like that you should just know to keep out of the reach of small children and not take any chances, placing this one shelf-higher could have done a lot to prevent this girl's injury and possible death.

[Kestra]

Trekker4747 wrote:

---

I dunno, 37 sounds like quite a lot to me, looking it up real quick I would guess the magnets were from a office toy like this:

LINK

Which, really, small stuff like that you should just know to keep out of the reach of small children and not take any chances, placing this one shelf-higher could have done a lot to prevent this girl's injury and possible death.

Yeah, those are the magnets. We have some, and I got some for my younger cousins (not that young!). Even then I lectured them about how strong the magnets are, what precautions to take, and I let their parents know what I had given them.

I agree that the parents shouldn't have had anything like this around their child. I'm not disputing that. I just think people are really quick to say "bad parent!" when it's a rough business. Taking care of a young child is exhausting and I'm fairly sure that many parents make mistakes here and there. Thankfully this one didn't turn out to be fatal.

[Trekker4747]

Well, I don't think I'd really call these people "bad parents" either but it was certainly a mistake that happened and it really should not have, after having the child for three years and she's about the age where she's really walking, wanting to learn things, and getting into things I would think stuff with small pieces like that would've been placed in high positions long ago.

Granted, I've no kids but I've watched my mom babysit a number of kids over the years of running her business as well as witnessed friends and family members have and raise kids. One thing that always seemed pretty common was that pretty much as soon as the kid is able to roll over and somewhat mobile you lock down anything and everything possible. Tiny stuff stays well out of reach, doors and cabinets get those frustrating locks/straps put on them, gates go up to preclude where the child can go, plugs on the outlets, etc.

Mistakes and shit can happen, sure, just strikes me as odd that this toy would've been anywhere near a place where the child could possibly get to it.

Anyway, I'm glad the child survived but it's frightening to read what happened here could have been fatal (I'm guessing that the magnets have some sort of heavy metal in them that wouldn't be good to digest) hell it's probably a small miracle the child didn't choke on the magnets when she was trying to consume them.

Again, thoughts to the family and glad the kid survived relatively unharmed from the experience.

[J. Allen]

Trekker4747 wrote:

---

Well, I don't think I'd really call these people "bad parents" either but it was certainly a mistake that happened and it really should not have, after having the child for three years and she's about the age where she's really walking, wanting to learn things, and getting into things I would think stuff with small pieces like that would've been placed in high positions long ago.

Granted, I've no kids but I've watched my mom babysit a number of kids over the years of running her business as well as witnessed friends and family members have and raise kids. One thing that always seemed pretty common was that pretty much as soon as the kid is able to roll over and somewhat mobile you lock down anything and everything possible. Tiny stuff stays well out of reach, doors and cabinets get those frustrating locks/straps put on them, gates go up to preclude where the child can go, plugs on the outlets, etc.

Mistakes and shit can happen, sure, just strikes me as odd that this toy would've been anywhere near a place where the child could possibly get to it.

Anyway, I'm glad the child survived but it's frightening to read what happened here could have been fatal (I'm guessing that the magnets have some sort of heavy metal in them that wouldn't be good to digest) hell it's probably a small miracle the child didn't choke on the magnets when she was trying to consume them.

Again, thoughts to the family and glad the kid survived relatively unharmed from the experience.

Choking wouldn't have been likely. Remember that candy "Sixlets". Those are what bucky ball magnets look like, just without the delicious candy part.

Bucky ball sphere magnets: http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/science/bbe8/

Sixlets: http://i877.photobucket.com/albums/a.../sixlets-3.jpg

[Trekker4747]

A small child can choke on practically anything which is usually why you keep small items out of their reach.

[Kelso]

Kestra wrote:

---

I agree that the parents shouldn't have had anything like this around their child. I'm not disputing that. I just think people are really quick to say "bad parent!" when it's a rough business. Taking care of a young child is exhausting and I'm fairly sure that many parents make mistakes here and there. Thankfully this one didn't turn out to be fatal.

Yeah. I fell asleep once when my daughter was that age and she ransacked the house. She pulled all of the Popsicles out of the fridge, drew on the wall, painted her face and arms with nail polish, poured baby powder all over the bathroom floor, etc. Calling your wife at work at 3 a.m. to find out where the nail polish remover is (and if it can safely be used on skin) is no fun at all. Thankfully, she didn't get hurt in any way.

Another time she was out in the garage with me while I was putting some boxes on the shelf and she disappeared while I was struggling with a box that ruptured. I found her in the neighbor's backyard trying to get onto their trampoline. That one nearly gave me a heart attack.

And on yet another occasion, I realized that the kiddie shampoo bottle was empty while she was in the tub, so I went into the other room to find the new bottle. While I was gone, she somehow poured enough water out of the tub (using the little bucket we used to wash her hair) that it soaked through the floor and started dripping downstairs.

She was the kind of kid you couldn't turn your back on for a second or she would be chewing on the walls, climbing onto a table or scaling a baby-gate!

When she was still crawling, she managed to climb into a chair, onto the table, and seated herself in her high-chair while I was opening the baby-food and putting it in her bowl! I just turned around and she was sitting there waiting for me! She couldn't even WALK yet! She was some kind of ninja-baby! And I learned very early to never EVER leave a chair sitting next to the kitchen counter.

It's really easy to criticize the parents when something like this happens. That little girl had probably been eyeing those magnets for a week, waiting for the parents to slip up so she could make a bee-line for them. It doesn't matter how careful or vigilant you are. Kids know exactly what they are not supposed to do and will wait for the moment when you let your guard down. If it's amazing that we survive childhood, it's even more amazing that we survive parenthood!

[ShamelessMcBundy]

Magnets. Always with the magnets.