Ate a Penny... How Long Will It Take???

You asked this question a LONG time ago, but just for peace of mind maybe. When my daughter was a baby she ate one of those partly flat decorative marbles, a clear one. It came out in her diaper in 2 days time, and the only reason I saw it (it was a loaded diaper), was because of the shine of the marble. I would guess the penny came out fairly quickly and you just missed it.

Around 11 months my daughter ate a penny, but I did not know it. All I knew is that she vomited every bottle. I took her to the doctor, who PRODDED and POKED her tummy, found nothing wrong, and the next day, penny.

Maybe it is lodged?

By the way, recently I swallowed a gold crown, and never found it. And I think I am still ok : )

It should pass fine. We experienced this in a rather scary way...my son ate a pop-top off of a pop can (my husband drinks sodas often and leaves the cans around). He must have seen dad opening the can and decided to play with the tab/pop-top and it came off, then into the mouth it went! I was unaware of this until I changed his diaper and found the pop-top. It had a sharp edge, which scared me! I shudder to think of what potential damage that sharp piece could do. So children do live through these things, even without medical consultation. If I had known, I probably would have spent time in the ER getting xrays too...

When my son was 2, he ate a dime on Mother's Day. What a gift! I was worried about him choking or something more severe happening. We went to the Dr., and they did an X-Ray but also did not seem too concerned. They said, "Now, you will just have to FIND it when it passes to make sure it passed.

It didn't take long at all....a day and a 1/2? See, at the time, I was pregnant with our 2nd and really wanted chicken mcnuggets from McDonalds. My son, who had maybe ate fast food twice at this point in his young life, had a cheeseburger and a few fries. It wasn't an hour later after eating that burger that he had a BM and out came the dime! ALthough I am not a big fan of fast food....I sure was that day!

Don't worry too much...it will pass! :-)
Goodluck!

Have you tried giving him bulky foods like lettuce and spinach...? I remember when my little cousin ate a penny that was what the Dr suggested giving him bulky foods to pass it... another thing is that he may have passed it already and maybe it just got lost in the mix for a lack of better words!

Hi Kristen,
Not quite the same, but my dog ate a ball the size of a nickel. It upset her stomach so we took her in. The vet jumped right on that and ordered the highest blood test and xrays. Anyway, an xray the next week showed the ball had moved on through.

Anyway, I had to tell the vet to back off as I had read many stories of kids swallowing coins and they pass without great concern so remove the blood test from my $400 bill. I really didn't even feel I needed to go back for the second xray, but did anyway.

Best of luck. I am sure it will pass on through especially with all the great stories everyone has shared.

With many kids, this stuff does pass, however I did hear a very gross tale of a person that received a colonic. they heard a bunch of clanking going on suddenly and when the specialist checked it out, it was a nickle the person ate when they were about that age! (So, to give you an idea... It can get stuck in the digestive tract rather easily along with the rest of things...)

However, I am crossing my fingers that your little one will be fine. (I thought the other post was funny with getting rich off the BM's, though~)

My 20 month old swallowed a button and he pooped it out the next morning (it took a full 24 hours). Good luck!

Dear K.,
My daughter swallowed a penny when she was little and we, subsequently, took her to the ER. The doc said, 'Not to worry! It will pass on through' and, sure enough, it did! I must add that, though I can't remember exactly how long it took, it didn't seem like it was all that long, maybe a few days.
I wouldn't worry even if it's longer for your son! Common sense would say that his body should treat the penny as a foreign object and send it through the bowels for elimination
Hope this helps!
Blessings!
J. F.

Hi there,

I wanted to add this...so you don't worry so much...
My best friend's little boy, 2 years old, maybe 3 at the time, swallowed a marble. She took him in for an x-ray, it took 2-3 weeks for that marble to come out on it's own. My nephew also swallowed a penny, same thing, it took a few weeks to come out after he had the x-ray as well.
This is a common thing in kids, I guess it would seem anyhow. You have quite a lot of responses with people that have had their children doing the same.
Hope this helped calm your nerves a bit anyway!
Merry Christmas!!

My son swallowed a screw when he was 1, he is now 4. It showed up on x-ray and after weeks of rubber gloving it through the poop, I never found it. It is either still in there somewhere, or I think the stomach acid might have done something to it. Either way, I never found it and he is fine.

My daughter ate a steel ball bearing when she was three and it took almost a week to pass. we did the tongue depresser smoosh in the toilet for a while. it will pass but could take a while. the doctor suggested grapes to help with the timelag in waiting for the silver ball. Be patient and it will come. Thanks. K.

My 3 yo son ate a quarter a few months back. Three weeks, one procedure to try to remove the quarter (basically they put him out and tried to retrieve it from his throat, but accidentally pushed it down into his tummy), and lots of poop patrol and it did eventually come out. But we never saw it in his poop. Only the x-ray showed it was gone.

Other than having a sore throat, my son had no bad side effects.

Sometimes it can happen the opposite way around. My daughter was probably just over 1yo, and we found 2 pennies in her poopy diaper, and we know it wasn't something she put in her diaper. We have no idea how she got a hold of pennies, since it isn't something we have laying around with a baby crawling. She never even put things in her mouth much after 1yo. So, she sneaked one in on us, and we watched her much closer after that. I wondered if she pried it out of the cushions or something, so we cleaned under those, and tried to figure out where she got it. Although it was a little late by that time.

Since it has been over a month since your original post, Hopefully the penny is now gone. My son was about that age when he ate a marble, fortunately my husband's office has x-ray equipment so we didn't have to go to to the ER, but the marble just sat there for several weeks, so a GI doc friend suggested that we feed him high fiber items(oatmeal, etc) so there would be enough mass in his stomach to move the marble. That eventually did the trick! Of course this is the same kid that put beans up his nose twice at pre-school causing them to have to get rid of the beans for the counting center.

I would first have to ask if you have consulted with your Pediatrician or ER..clinic...etc. I have never experienced this, but I would think that its possible that a penny could become an obstruction and not automatically pass through a 3 year old's system. Please contact a professional if you have not done so already.

My Grandmother use to tease me about getting rich off of my poop, I ate mostly dimes and pennies, but those were old mercury dimes. They all passed.No x rays no Dr. costs. Just alot of laughs from Mom, Dad and rest of the family.

At least it wasn't a quarter. My (then) 4yr old decided to give me a present for mother's day by swallowing a quarter. After a couple of hours at the ER and an xray later. We saw that she had in fact swallowed it, but it was already in her stomach having passed through everything that would have complicated things. I never found the quarter in her poop. The ER doc said sometimes foreign objects will take a little longer to come out compared to food since the body can't digest them or something. Anyway, it did come out, when, I don't know. I never saw it, but paranoid me had to have another xray 2 weeks later just to make sure and it wasn't anywhere in sight. Just be patient. This happens to kids all the time. If the doc isn't worried, you should be fine. Like I said, at least it wasn't a quarter :)

It's not just kids who do crazy things. I have a cousin (late teen at the time) who was doing a "magic trick" to entertain some of the little kids and accidentaly swallowed a fifty-cent piece. He was x-rayed a couple times but it didn't move out of his stomach. The dr. told his folks that if he had pain or "got stopped up" to get him to the hospital, but not to worry too much. I don't know if it is still there or not. It has been decades and no problems. Just make sure you record this in journal so when your grandchild does the same thing you can have a good laugh.

My daughter swallowed a dime when she was 2. I called my grandmother, because I know that happened to her with one of her kids, it turned out my uncle had swallowed a nickel. I believe it took my daughter 3 or 4 days and I found the dime finally. My husband drilled a hole in it and since I make jewelry on the side, made a necklace out of it for her for when she's older. LoL

It took almost 8 days for my almost 4 year old at that time. I made him poop in a plastic bag that covered the toilet so I can grab it, go in the backyard and look for it. It will come out or probably has by now.
Good luck....it is only funny once it is over.

When my son swallowed one at 2 years old. He swallowed it at about 11:00 am and it came out that evening about 6. I was amazed that it came through so quickly. Hopefully you've just missed it.

my daughter swallowed a quarter once! it was awhile ago but i think it took about a week to pass. we fed her lots of fiber....salads olive oil otherwise she would have had to have an operation to retrieve the quarter....not a great alternative. it finally passed and now that she is 14 it makes for an intersting and funny story(not so funny when you are living through it though). Good luck to you!
Val

My son ate a penny when he was 3. It took him 8 days and two xrays to pass it :). Don't worry it will come out! My son thought it was just a hoot that I had to look through his poop to find it. Oh and not to be gross but when it did come out it was black not copper color any more.

I have no idea how long it will take and i really wouldn't worry, lots of children have swallowed money. I know my siblings and i have and we are now all in our 50's
Paula

I know your post is from last month, but I was just catching up on my emails and was very relieved to read your post...about a week ago, my 15-mo. daughter got a hold of a disco ball Xmas ornament (despite our best efforts to keep her away from Xmas decos!). It was a mini plastic one, and I didn't see her eat any pieces, but the ball was wet like it had been in her mouth, and several squares were missing! The pieces were about 1/8-1/4" but square (we guess she may have eaten about half a dozen of them?), and I was very concerned that the corners could be scratching her insides! We have been checking her diapers ever since then and have not seen anything, but she has been eating very well and had no problem with BMs. I had wanted to take her to urgent care but my hubby talked me out of it. But it makes me feel better that so many kids have eaten coins and been fine! Will probably still take her to get checked for my own peace of mind, but good to know...

My daughter swallowed a penny two years ago, we never did see the penny again, but she's fine. :)

I know this was a long time ago but if it has been four to five days already,it has passed by now.