HOME HEALTH GUIDE

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 8, Issue 80, 12 June 1945, Page 7

HOME HEALTH GUIDE

j THE SWALLOWING HABIT | (By the Department of Health) One habit that little children pick ii]) is that, of swallowing thing's, they pjut in their mouths. They don't mean o swallow them—they're simply sampling things by the sense of taste—but when they go down mother gets terribly worried. But there's a bright side to the picture. The chances are that whatever can be swallowed can be passed out naturally, although it may take far longer than you may imagine. Here's a story from a hospital. These child experimenters were tod'dlers, and pre-school children. A penny was passed on the sixth day; so was a tin-whistle. A three inch long screw driver took four daj r s, a closed safety pin two clays- an open one eight days. Bobby pins are swallowed frequently by little, girls, having fallen or being taken from their hair. There is no hope of estimating how long they'll take to come through as they proved very freakish from a few days to many weeks. A two-inch nail came through on the seventh day, the head of a toy horse in six days. All sorts of things, were swallowed —nail tiles., needles, screws keys drawing pins tacks » j y j toy wheels, and so on. And from all this variety of swallowing accidents there were no deaths. Most of the children were in no wjiy upset. Some had abdominal pain or tenderness,. The hospital treatment was to watch the progress of the foreign body byX-rav and otherwise do nothing in most cases. Sometimes cotton wool was given by mouth and paraffin used as an aperient. Occasionally enemas were used to retrieve aor search for the i'or-r eign body. So if your toddler swalows sofnething alarming, it'll probably emerge all rignt. If it's injuring the intestinal canal there'll be symptoms of pain and tenderness. By all means consult doctor or hospital, but don't worry in the absence, of symptoms just watch patiently till the object is retrieved.