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Comment by fiznool | Hacker News Reader

Just wanted to say thank you for posting this. I have three small children and had no idea of the dangers these batteries pose. We seem to be changing button batteries every couple of weeks or so, they are in a number of sound books and toys we have around the house. I will be sure to take extra care with them after reading that article. It’s every parent’s worst nightmare.

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Parent of 2 young girls myself and I happened to find this information out by chance when shopping online for batteries. The stories from these parents shocked me. I'm really glad this info helped you, hopefully more and more parents spread the word.

Serious question: what is the risk, aside from any other "foreign object"? Does the battery leak?

Chemical reaction can burn a hole in your esophagus.

According to Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_cell#Accidental_ingesti... the battery's anode creates an electric current with the digestive tract's fluids that produces caustic soda which can burn through the oesophagus in as little as 2 hours.

Wow, that's crazy unsafe! Can't believe I haven't heard about this until now.

I’m sorry, you have a child and didn’t know button batteries (or batteries in general) were dangerous? Is there not a clear choking hazard and the knowledge it’s filled with toxic/hazardous chemicals? This should be common sense.

Nice way to shame someone brave enough to admit they were lacking in knowledge and announcing action to improve their live.

Yea it’s called being concerned for their kid.

Notice how you’re not explaining why I look ridiculous? Please, tell me how an infant is smarter than you

I’m sorry...what are you on about? If your goal is to have heated discussions with strangers on the net, there are better platforms out there for that than HN. Your comment style makes you look really insecure. Be aware of that.

The fact is, kids face many dangers and as a parent you cannot be aware of all of them. So if you’re introduced to a new danger and your reaction is “I didn’t know this, but now that I do I’m immediately making changes to prevent impact of this danger on my kid” that deserves praise. Not cheeky low effort guilt tripping.

People might not even realise a toy or electronic device has a button battery in them. There are no warnings on packaging. Kids can swallow them without an immediate reaction like choking. An hour or 2 later the child becomes sick and the parent doesn't understand why. They don't know they swallowed a battery, they didn't even know it existed. Medical professionals just assume its a fever. You cant see the button unless X-rays are taken and by that time that the injuries can be severe.

It’s not about realizing if a toy has a battery or not, the choking hazard alone is enough. There’s also no electronic devices a child should swallow. Kids are swallowing these because parents like this aren’t thinking.

I see you do not have a child.

I hate the trite “oh, you'll know when you're a parent!” stuff as much as the next person, but… have you met a one-year-old? So curious, and so quick to eat new things: a bad combo if I've ever seen one.

Hmm, so I have no child and no experience huh? What happened to baby proofing houses? Keeping items they shouldn’t eat out of reach? As a parent it is your job to keep that child safe until they can do the same, and leaving dangerous items around is failing that one task. You don’t leave things around that hurts your child, be it guns or batteries.

You clearly don't have children, so stop pretending that being a parent is as easy as writing some sentences describing what needs to be done. It's like someone pretending to be a doctor explaining how easy it is to work in medicine to a group of actual trained professionals, it looks silly.

If you were a parent you would know that time is not available to you, that you cant sit and stare at the kids from morning to night. Rent/mortgages need to be paid, cleaning done, food prepared all the things that any person who is a parent is already well aware of. You do your best to protect them, but you are not innately gifted with the ability to see every perceived threat like some robot on the day a child is born.

The fact that it's a recurring problem should be clearly evident that it is not common knowledge, that the warnings are not there to inform parents. People on this thread who I can assume are reasonably smart and don't neglect their children didn't know the danger. So enough already, you're out of your depth on this topic.

> If you were a parent you would know that time is not available to you, that you cant sit and stare at the kids from morning to night.

So there are no such things as play pens in which you can create a secure and safe area while you are distracted with life?

And my point remains, if you need a warning that eating batteries is dangerous, perhaps wait a few years. The fact that this keeps reoccurring means people aren’t using their brain.

Playpens aren’t designed for 3 year olds. Now because you didn’t use your brain in this instance, it’s your fault the child dies because your a bad parent. You should have known that 3 years old are too old for playpens.

This is your logic. You already failed the test before becoming a parent. You would be a ‘bad parent’ in your own words.

Oh sure, an area keeping your child wrangled isn’t designed for 3 year olds. Again you’re not using your brain.

No ones ever thought of using a playpen before have they. It's obviously been used until the child grew well out of it when they are running and talking. You're using your brain to show everyone how little you know, well done.

Just to be clear, this is your idea of ‘using your brain’. Instead of creating rules for companies to make household products safe for kids, we should allow them to continue as is. Instead kids should be confined in playpens to keep them safe until the time they are ready for school. Even though the parents don’t know the danger exists and could easily place a toy with a battery in the playpen unknowingly making the whole exercise pointless. Still it’s best to deprive a children of experiencing the world by confinement them well beyond the recommended years in the false believe that it will keep them safe.

We should adjust our behaves to accomodate companies unsafe products, that’s using your brain.

When the item they shouldn't eat is in the “safe for children” toy you got sold, how're you meant to keep it out of reach? As soon as a child notices that you can pull the velcro and expose the battery compartment, nothing short of screws is going to stop them putting the batteries in their mouth, and it will only leave their mouth (heavily chewn) if it's too hard to swallow.

Source: me, aged nine. (I didn't have the “eat everything” instincts, but I still wanted to know what batteries taste like. Given how much time I spent with my tongue on a battery, I would probably have swallowed a button cell had I had access to one – and that's with warnings about “batteries will burn a hole through your insides” from my parents. Your average one-year-old doesn't stand a chance.)

Why was the remote in reach? Why did your parents not realize the batteries were easy to remove and let you have it anyways? You people are proving my “bad parents” theory.

‘Bad parent’ theory. Please, tell a mum who’s child died after being burnt through the inside because they left a remote on a table that she is a bad parent.

They don’t realise the danger because there are no warnings, they assume a device is safe as is. Have you not figured that out yet?

This is just too good... If you ever have children please remember this thread. Only then will you finally understand how ridiculous you look right now.

Having raised 3, what do you say now?

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