Watch your kids. They are faster than you think. You have to think ahead and always keep things out of their reach. And then when you think you have everything out of their reach check again. I remember sticking a wooden bead up my nose as a kid. Luckily I was able to blow out and it came out. Buy door and drawer latches. Use them. They can be a pain but you get used to them. Keep a neat tidy home. That way it is easier to see when something dangerous is left out. If everything is cluttered and messed up you can't see the dangers. There is no such thing as being a part time parent.

With the holidays coming up watch out for your Xmas tree ornaments. A lot of them use button batteries to make their light and sound effects. I hate them. I wish they would either be plug in kind or use AAA batteries for their power, which even though they are small are a lot better than button batteries. A lot of ornaments are so big now that designing them to accommodate AAA's should be easy. You listening Hallmark!

Lets just ban everything - food, gas, batteries, christmas ornaments, baby dolls - everything!

So what? Do we now need to enact legislation that batteries can be no smaller than a hockey puck? Where the hell are the parents and why aren't they watching their kids? This is no ones fault but the parents but they attempt to place blame on a battery. This is a typical article that avoids specifically calling for a ban but is written to imply just that.

I didnt hear anything about legislation or banning, just a heads up for parents about the risk of small batteries to kids. More knowledge is a good thing.

Try paying attention to what you give to/allow to be given to your child. I do think that the toy companies should make those batteries a little harder to extract, but they can only do so much.

Playgrounds were made of metal and a lot higher when I was a kid. My friends and I survived, so I guess there must of been learning experiences we got from it. Like don't do anything stupid. Obviously don't leave stuff out for kids that are dangerous, but you can't protect them from everything. If they are meant to be here the gene pool won't remove them.

What drives me nuts is all the happy meal toys and cards that contain these, and its impossible to get them out to dispose of them properly:  have triangle shaped screws of wierd sizes and you just about need to sledgehammer them.    They're not supposed to be thrown in the trash, as hazardous materials.  The purposes they're put to is just so pointless considering the above dangers and environmental damage.  I avoid whenever possible.

OK that's terrifying.

My condolences to the Truett family. I have four kids and I'd never survive losing a single one. I appreciate this article as a mom. I rarely use button batteries, or as I call them watch batteries, and never would have thought twice about the risk of ingestion thinking it would pass the same way a penny or a dime usually does if a child swallows it. I never had the worries with my three older children swallowing or putting things in their mouth, but my 1 year old has ninja reflexes and just sticks anything in her mouth she can get her hands on. This is a great article and I hope it stays on the front page of MSN for a while. Many people need to read this!

I think this is a serious risk, but I also think that if cases are on the rise, the only logical reason would be that good monitoring of children's activities is on the decline. The batteries themselves aren't suddenly more dangerous, and I don't think you can argue they are more common than several years ago, either. Either way, it would take many years to phase them out as so many devices use them - which is not an argument against getting rid of them, but a point that every toddler in the country today would probably be an adult by the time we got rid of them and parents need to keep that in mind.

Parents themselves have the most power by simply removing devices that use these batteries from the home and not keeping these batteries around, or storing them carefully.

This is new how? Hasn't batteries always been dangerous to swallow? This report anit new its old and any one with a quarter of a brain knows not to eat batteries.

life is dangerous, maybe the US will ban living.

people have to start being responsible and stop boo hoo crying about spilled milk. salt and pepper can burn if it gets in the eyes, little beads from necklaces can be swallowed, lets ban them too.

its the fault of the parents, if they knew what they were doing or had any sense, most injuries wouldnt happen.

bicycles are very dangerous, lets forbid kids to have them too.

I saw something on discovery health, and this girl's mother found the child's grandmother's empty watch battery package. She asked her daughter, "Did you swallow these?" And the child said she thought they were siver candies. Just goes to show that kids don't know any better, they may not have a clue what they're eating. Keep these things out of reach.

The sky is falling, kids must start wearing chemo suits with helmets.

Hearing aids use these too, so be careful at the grandparents' house. You can call the National Button Battery Hotline at (202) 625-3333 in case of ingestion or, better yet, to get information before ingestion occurs.

look ---- the problem here is not the batteries, it's with parents who refuse to take any responsibility for their children. ---- it's up to each parent to instruct their youngsters what goes in your mouth, and what doesn't. ---- and for those children too young to understand, how difficult is it to keep those items out of their reach ?? ---- yes, button batteries are easy to swallow, but a AAA battery is only marginally more difficult.

How about parents start taking responsibility for their children? Just a thought.

Although the likelihood of this happening is extremely slim, it is a great article on highlighting the dangers of these batteries.

In China, children working in factories make these batteries. In the US, children shove these batteries up their noses. Different cultures, different realities. The Chinese culture honors work. The US culture honors drug use.

This article is utterly absurd. Growing risk? One kid out of millions of kids who have hearing aids or are children of parents who wear them? I have hearing aids. As a kid I used to chew on the batteries because they have a weird taste. But to suggest batteries are some kind of epidemic is utterly grasping at straws and creating useless fear. Editor and author should be reprimanded.

My co-worker's daughter swallowed a lithium disk battery last spring. She was afraid to tell anyone. A few hours later she was screaming in pain. She was rushed to an emergency room where she was mis-diagnosed with growing pains. She was going to be sent home with pain medication. He mother grabbed her daughter and brought her to an immediate care facility where the did an x-ray and found the battery lodged in her throat. It was surgically removed but she remained in critical condition for several weeks. A specialist came in from Colorado oversee her healing because of the caustic nature of the burns. She was finally healed in July.

Non of us had heard of such a thing prior to this near disaster. We were horrified that such a tragedy could come from a simple lithium disc battery. This should be a leading story!

Dawn M. Burton