Batteries included: Childproofing Grandma's house
Friday, May 18, 2012 During the days I served as sole caretaker of Bubby and Baby Mac a few weeks ago, Baby Mac's favorite thing to get into was the television cabinet. He loved nabbing the Wii remotes hidden within and walking around with one in each hand. If he didn't feel like going through the hassle of wrangling the Wii remotes out of the cabinet, he simply grabbed the universal remote for the television, which was usually nearby on the recliner or ottoman.
The kid likes remotes. No big deal.
Turns out it is a big deal, though—a big dangerous deal, thanks to the easily accessible and potentially fatal batteries inside the clickers he covets.
Because of Baby Mac's obsession with remote controls, the following news story struck quite a chord when I happened upon it Monday evening:
Scary, huh!?
Then, the very next day I received an email from the Battery Controlled campaign from Energizer and Safe Kids Worldwide. It offered stats from the American Academy of Pediatrics plus additional information on the dangers of lithium batteries, including a link to this video:
As grandparents who often have little visitors, we've childproofed our homes, just like the parents of our grandchildren have done. We've covered outlets, wrapped up window cords, secured screens on windows, bought baby gates and bathtub mats and hidden our medications and more in cabinets where little ones can't reach them. But did any of us—parents included—consider the dangers of remote controls, key fobs, hearing aids, greeting cards, bathroom scales, iPods, iPads and more?
I sure didn't.
That's no longer the case, though. Not only will I have an eye on every remote and other button battery-operated gadget next time Baby Mac and Bubby visit my house, I've shared the videos with Megan and encouraged her to do the same battery-proofing at her house.
I encourage you to do the same, too: Share the warnings with the parents of your grandchildren, and heed the warnings in your own home.
Today's question:
What's your guesstimate of how many button battery-operated gadgets you might have around your house?
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Reader Comments (11)
I had no clue about this! Thanks for sharing. We have at least 8 gadgets that have those batteries.
My Granddaughter never aimed for the dangerous stuff, but my Grandson seems determined to get into anything he can. Yikes!
I had absolutely no idea they were dangerous. Gives me shivers thinking about my kids narrowly escaping harm. I'll be prepared for grandbabies!
I probably have eight or ten such deadly things around my house==Yikes! I'm always trying to put stuff like that up where Sheba can't get ahold of it; she gnaws on anything and everything she gets her mouth on; thanks for the warning.
I don't even have a close guess. I am such a techie nerd, I have gadgets from the Stone Age still lying around. It ain't pretty.
Happy Friday!
I saw a video once about a teenage boy who was taking care of his baby sister, and she was permanently damaged after swallowing a AA battery. So I'm paranoid about batteries in general. And yet I have a singing greeting card from my daughter's birthday sitting on the living room floor, waiting for my son to rip it open and decide that little silver disc looks like candy. Yikes.
Who knew?! I'm glad Amara is well past the age of eating buttons and batteries but thank you for sharing this as we have lots of friends with little ones and I will absolutely share this with them!
Happy Friday!
As yet I haven't watched the video. Unfortunately I know about the dangers of small batteries.
When Lucy was just over two she swallowed a small camera battery. Her mother (my daughter) left it in her oesophagus for three days before doing taking her to the doctor. The poor wee soul must have found it difficult to eat; the pain must have been unbearable. Lucy was admitted to hospital, the battery was removed, however the acid had leaked. Fortunately there have been no ill effects from this unpleasant experience. This is one of the reasons why we are now raising Lucy.
Please everyone keep batteries well out of reach of little hands, they are just so dangerous.
This is important to know about. I don't have grandchildren but the dogs, especially the young one, still gets into everything. Thanks for spreading the word.
Wow! I never realized how many things those button batteries are in. I still don't think we have any in our house, though, as all of our gadgets are out of date and have regular batteries. Still this is such important information to have (especially the musical cards...my daughter loves those!). I'll be forwarding this to my mother and mother-in-law immediately!
Stopping by from SITS Sharefest
Thank you for alerting us, Lisa! My 3 grand kids all love being "in control" of the remote and other devices like it. They are not fooled by toy imitations either! I am going to mention this to my daughters and be extra cautious myself. The best advice I get these days is always from another grandma! Thank you!
Lisa, I am so glad you wrote this post. I have heard of this and there were a couple of news stories here about it. Recently I also heard of another incident of a child swallowing a battery where it leaked acid for days before anyone found out the problem; all thought it was the flu. Permanent damage was done to this child who nearly lost its life! I would like to figure out how to put a permanent link to your post on my side bar (would that be ok with you?) and hope that everyone heeds the advice.