Swallowed money is dangerous!

[Garga]

I never knew that swallowing money was really dangerous. I just figured it passed through your system.

 

But I was talking to someone who's son was having severe digestive problems. They thought the child was allergic or intolerant to all sorts of foods and he was on a very restricted diet.

 

They did a chest x-ray for a different issue (pneumonia, I think) and it showed that there was a coin in the child's stomach. The child has coin-shaped scars on his stomach where the lining was eaten away from the coin. The doctors kept an eye on it for a little while to see if it would pass--it didn't, so they surgically removed it.

 

I had no idea coins could cause problems like that! (scars, severe digestion problems) If they hadn't done the chest xray this kid would have had his whole stomach destroyed in a few years from the coin. Yikes! They've since been introducing regular foods back into his diet and he's doing fine.

 

I just felt like I had to share in case anyone's kids start having stomach or digestive problems.

[abbeyej]

*Most* of the time, coins *do* just pass right through. But yes, occasionally they can cause problems. Ds swallowed a dime sometime around 1.5-2 years, and the pediatrician said it would likely be fine, but I should check to see if it, er, reappeared, 'cause if it didn't within a few days, we would need to do an x-ray. It did show up quickly, but I understand that there are rare cases where a coin (or other small object) can get stuck and cause real problems.

[Amber in SJ]

Your post reminded me of a conversation I had with the nurse when my 18mo dd swallowed a penny. I thought it was no biggie; that it would just pass but better to be safe than sorry, right?

 

She asked me if the penny was minted before or after 1983. Since the penny had not reappeared I had no idea. She went on to tell me that the newer pennies (post 1983) were copper-clad zinc and the zinc could damage the stomach lining or intestines if it "sat" in any one place too long. Gross, huh? If the penny did not show up in 24-48 hours she recommended we bring her in. Luckily the penny showed up later that day.

 

I guess the moral would be to only keep old change lying around.

 

Amber in SJ

[Tutor]

A few years ago, my ds (then 5) told me he had swallowed a penny. I assumed we would just have to wait for it to pass but called the doctor just to be safe. She told us that if it was an earlier date penny (pre 1985?) that it could cause severe stomach problems, so we should have him x-rayed to see if it was passing through his system properly or would have to be surgically removed.

 

The x-ray tech took one look at the x-ray and said that it looked bigger than a penny, so we began holding pocket change up to the x-ray and sure enough - it was a quarter! We were told that since it was a quarter and had gone rather far through his system already, they didn't see any real problems and to call them if he had any abdominal pain. Since he was small and the quarter would be rather large to pass, they told us it could be a few days. He jokingly told us not to go fly anywhere because he would probably set-off the metal detector. :001_huh:

 

Ironically, a few days later, he hadn't passed the quarter yet and I realized that we had tickets to hear the President speak... we were going to have to go through a metal detector! :eek: Well, we still have the note from the doctor (which was passed along the security line so all the Secret Service agents could read it):

 

To Whom It May Concern:

 

Please be aware that [Terzo], the bearer of this note, may activate your metal detectors. This is due to the fact that on Oct. 16th he swallowed a quarter and has not passed it yet.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. D

 

:D

[*Inna*]

To Whom It May Concern:

 

Please be aware that [Terzo], the bearer of this note, may activate your metal detectors. This is due to the fact that on Oct. 16th he swallowed a quarter and has not passed it yet.

 

Sincerely,

Dr. D

:lol:

[runamuk]

Our son swallowed a quarter a year and a half ago, and the doctor was concerned enough to send him for an xray immediately. It had made it to Mac's stomach and we waited for it to pass. When it hadn't showed up a week later, we went back for another xray. It was moving along slowly, but not blocking anything, so we waited it out. It took 3 weeks for it to show up. Ugh - 3 weeks of "checking" for that coin.

[MamaSheep]

There are other dangers as well. My friend's little daughter (I can't remember if it was before or after she turned 2) was having respiratory issues--funny wheezing, labored breathing--for a long time, which didn't clear up with repeated rounds of antibiotics or nebulizer treatments. A chest x-ray turned up nothing. She wouldn't eat much and wasn't growing well. Finally they decided to do an MRI and see if they could figure out what was wrong. They found a penny wedged partway down her esophagus (too high up for the chest x-ray). The way it was wedged was putting pressure on her trachea and partially closing off her airway. They were able to reach down her throat with some kind of long skinny grabby thing and pull it out. Unfortunately, the breathing problems continued sporadically. After several more weeks (or months, I don't even remember for sure) they decided to do another scan. This time, they found obstructing scar tissue at the location where the penny had been stuck. They had originally assumed the swelling was from the penny and expected it to go down after the coin was removed. It was decided that surgery was necessary to clear her airway. During the surgery a small, transparent plastic sequin was discovered embeded in the scar tissue. It was hard to tell how long it had been in there, but apparently the sharp edge of the plastic had cut into the tissue in the side of her esophagus and stuck there. The tissue had swollen, holding it in place, and then had grown up around the sequin, making a bulge in the side of her esophagus. It had also formed a small pocket where food would collect and cause infection which would develop into a mass of pus that would begin to obstruct the airway.The courses of antibiotics she'd been put on earlier with the assumption that it was bronchitis would reduce temporarily clear up the infection, reducing the size of the pus pocket and enabling her to breathe better--the improvement and then regression had made the doctors think it was just a resistant strain of bronchitis and had delayed treatment. Anyway, she's fine now. The surgery was successful, she breathes and eats just fine and has more than caught up in her growth. She's a darling, happy little child, almost 4 years old--and the scar that goes all the way across her throat is even fading some and becoming less noticeable. You just never know what can happen with little kids swallowing stuff. It's not as if this friend has a cluttery non-baby proof home, she's actually very careful about not leaving things where babies can reach. It's just that she has older girls who evidently had a sequin fall unnoticed off a costume, and a penny escape from a penny bank. It could happen to anyone, which is the really scary part to me.

[katemary63]

Accckkkk! You guys are scaring me! My son swallowed a large guitar pick when he was 15. I couldn't believe it. He said he was twirling it around in his mouth with his tounge and teeth like people sometimes do with a toothpick and just lost control of it and down it went! Weird! Anyway, it was plastic and wouldn't show up on an exray. The Dr. said it would probably pass on it's own. DS never noticed it. How do you not notice that? So, we don't know for sure that it passed but just assumed. I have never given it a second thought. He has been complaining off and on about stomach pain and diarrhea for a couple of years and we just assumed he had IBS like his dad. Yikes, I think I'll get him an evaluation! He's 22 now.

[MOM24WONDERS]

Ok, I've had two kids swallow change and BOTH of them had to have it surgically removed from their throat. The second child was Abby - she swallowed her offering at church and a nickel got stuck - she had it taken out the same night. Maddy was the first...she swallowed a penny (without us knowing) a few days before her first birthday. She kept getting sicker and sicker...they finally did a chest x-ray - thinking she had a severe case of pneumonia - only to find the penny lodged in her throat. She had copper poisoning and almost died from it.

 

If you child swallows ANYTHING please take them to the ER right away...it's nothing to play around with.

[Rainbows]

We just went through this on July 4th. Youngest DS came to me and told me he had money stuck in his throat. I wasn't sure if he meant he swallowed it and it wouldn't come out so it was "stuck", or if it really was stuck in his throat. One ER visit and $100 later we found out it he did indeed swallow a coin and it was in his tummy (we had thought it was a dime based on DSs description and the size on the xray). 2 days later a penny came out lol.

 

The ER nurse told me DS was the 3rd kid there that week for swallowing money. Another little boy had a coin stuck at the entrance to his stomache...so the Dr had him to jumping jacks to try and get it to go into the stomache so they could avoid surgery ( I think it worked b/c the nurse never mentioned the boy needed surgery)