Last night my son swallowed his older sister's keys to her diary. There are two tiny keys -- if you haven't seen diary lock keys they are slightly larger than luggage lock keys but still quite small. We went to the ER at CDH where they took an exray to confirm that they keys had passed through the esophagus and they have. The doc at the ER said they will most likely "pass" through in 5 to 7 days but gave us a list of thing to watch out for while we wait (and comb through his poop.) Has anyone else ever had this happen? Did the foreign object pass through without a problem? Were you told to avoid any particular activities while you were waiting? Thanks in advance.
Thank you everyone! Exactly 47 hours and 3 poops later the two keys came out safe and sound, still attached to their ring! Hooray!
Feed him roughage - that will get those keys moving south... My mother used to give us warm orange juice when she wanted the sluices opened... it worked... it was quick... and warm OJ is much tastier than prune juice.
LBC
LOL! Kids get themselves into some situations don't they! I'm truly not trying to make you feel bad, but this is cracking me up. I love all of the spunky little stinkers that do this kind of thing, bless their mischevious little hearts! :)
Your son is going to be fine. Diary keys do not have any sharp edges and do not have anything toxic to "bleed" into his system so no worries. He'll pass them eventually. Just relax and let nature take it's course. Once my youngest son ate paper (a lot of it) and two days later passed it. It still had legible print on it when we found it in his diaper! lol!
And this is only the beginning, I predict that you will ask a question about a small object lodged up his nose sometime in the next year or so! :)
Best of luck with your boy! Boys are a treasure!
My nephew, when he was 2, ate an entire dish of christmas reese peanut butter cups -- complete with foil wrappers. He was rushing because he want to eat them all before he got caught. A whole bunch of them passed and he was fine. He just graduated from high school.
There was no way we could have restricted his activity. He was 2, and hyper to begin with. Adding sugar and chocolate didn't help!
Those types of keys are not usually sharp, so I think you will be fine. Just keep an eye for the things the doctor said, but I will tell you let your son move. Moving around helps move the bowels. The sooner you can put this behind you the better you'll feel.
Save this story it will be fun to tell later in life. :-)
I know my sister swallowed a nickel when she was little. I don't recall her being unrestricted (I was 9 at the time), but then again, that was a round object w/ really no shape to it. I do recall it passed in about 3 days. Praying for safe "passagel" :)
My son was born with long hair, so in order to keep his bangs out of his eyes I always used a hair clip.
Well one day after a nap I couldn't find the clip, so I figured he had pulled it out and threw it somewhere. Fast forward two days and voila! My son had a nice shiny metal hair clip in his poopy diaper.
Thankfully I didn't know about it beforehand, because I would have been freaking out, but everything turned out alright.
A friend of mine is a nurse and she told me there were many studies done of children who swallowed things (much more dangerous too) like open safety pins or needles or nails and the vast majority of children end up being ok and go on to thrive. :)
So don't worry too much, just keep an eye out for the keys and remind him to only swallow food/drink. :)
my nephew swallowed a coin. They were told the same as you.......and yes, it did pass!
Been there, done that! When my son was 2 yrs old, he swallowed a metal peg that holds up a shelf. It was the size of an advil capsule. We too had the xray and found that it did make it to the stomach. And then for the next 5 days, we had to comb through the poop in search of it. It did pass without a problem. It was covered in so much poop, that he didn't even feel it. And no, we didn't have to avoid any activities. the good thing about the entire incident is my son still talks about it to this day. And I honestly do not think he will swallow anything on purpose again. :)
My son swallowed a dime and we didn't even know he did, until one day we were cleaning him and found it. It does pass. Just watch for it.
I don't want to completely dismiss the potential dangers, but the doctors have to warn you just "in case". Sure, there could be perforation, but way more likely is that he will pass them just fine. Kids swallow stuff all the time! :) My son swallowed a button battery on a dare - and he was old enough to know better! I'm assuming they gave you a plastic "catcher" for him to poo into so you can better determine if he's passed the keys? If not, go back and ask for one. It's much easier to sort through it in one of the hats than fishing it out of the toilet. Good luck!
don't worry, he'll poop it out. something that tiny - no problem. Just start looking for it.
Mine swallowed a large paperclip at around the same age, maybe a bit younger. Had him x-rayed to be sure it wasn't in the open position, which could puncture something. Once his doctor could see that it was closed, there was nothing to worry about. Didn't do anything differently and didn't look for it to pass, just knew it would.
