Undated — If you have games, watches or electronics under your tree, you likely have those shiny, button-sized batteries in the box, too, and those batteries can be a critical problem if a child swallows one.
Tammy Noble is a registered nurse and spokeswoman for the Iowa Poison Control Center. She says the moisture in the throat can trigger the flow of current in the battery, which can lead to serious trouble in the esophagus. A battery that’s stuck in the throat can cause burns — sometimes significant burns — within two hours after it’s swallowed. Noble says go directly to an emergency room if you think a child has swallowed a battery.
