Button Batteries: Preventing Access and Acting After Suspected Swallowing

If your child may have swallowed a button or coin battery, seek emergency care immediately. Go to the emergency department or call the local emergency number. Do not wait for pain, choking or other symptoms, and do not wait to find the battery in a bowel movement.

A battery can lodge in the food pipe and cause serious internal burns in as little as two hours. A child may initially seem well. Tell the emergency team clearly that a button battery may be involved.

Know what to do while getting help

Do not make your child vomit. Do not give food or drinks to push the battery down. Take the device, packaging or an identical battery if readily available, but do not delay departure to search for them. Keep any loose battery away from children during transport.

If your child is struggling to breathe, choking, having a seizure or unresponsive, call emergency services immediately and follow the dispatcher’s instructions. A battery in the nose or ear also needs immediate medical attention; do not attempt removal or put drops in it.

Understand the limited role of honey

Emergency battery guidance allows honey while traveling for care when a lithium coin battery may have been swallowed, the child is at least twelve months old, swallowing happened within the past twelve hours, the child can swallow and honey is immediately available. If the type is unknown, treat it as a possible lithium coin battery unless it is known to be a hearing aid battery. Contact the poison or emergency team while arranging care if you are uncertain.

When those conditions apply, give 10 mL, about two teaspoons, every ten minutes for up to six doses. Never give honey to a baby under twelve months, a child who cannot swallow safely, or when the battery may have been swallowed more than twelve hours ago. If timing is uncertain, ask the emergency or poison team rather than guessing.

Honey can slow injury but cannot make the battery safe or replace hospital treatment. Never delay leaving to obtain it. Apart from this specific measure, give nothing by mouth unless the emergency team directs you.

Find the batteries already in your home

Check remote controls, key fobs, scales, lights, toys and other small devices. Inspect the compartment and any retaining screw. Remove a product from the child’s access if its cover is loose, broken or missing. Tape is not a substitute for repairing the compartment as instructed.

The home safety guide helps you check low surfaces and visitors’ belongings. Keep spare batteries in secure storage, and keep used batteries there until they can be taken to an appropriate collection point. A battery that no longer powers a device can still injure a child.

Share the plan with caregivers

Explain the risk to relatives, nursery staff and anyone who changes batteries around your child. Keep battery storage separate from food and medicines, and account for the old battery immediately after replacement.

Our medicine storage guide covers other small household items that can be dangerous when swallowed. The burn prevention guide addresses external heat injuries; a suspected battery ingestion follows the emergency pathway above, even when there is no visible burn.