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The strangest thing your kid has eaten.


Lots of things fit in here mom.

A study popped up in my email today that said after ten years of exhaustive literature review, researchers have determined kids like to ingest small batteries, the kinds of batteries you find in watches, small toys and greeting cards.

According to the report, 3,000 people in the United States swallow one of these small batteries every year. Most of those people are under age five. They either swallow them or stick them up their noses: the logical thing to do if you’re under five.

What’s surprising to me is that someone took the time to study ten years worth of literature to determine this 3,000 people a year number. I’m guessing they got a grant from somewhere for this. I wonder if the peanuts-in-noses study was already taken.

What’s the strangest thing your kid has swallowed and or stuck in an orifice?

Categories: Uncategorized

17 Responses

  1. Nothing as bad as a battery, but dropping food on the floor doesn’t slow her down.

  2. SHunter says:

    But how long was it on the ground for, Nicki…?

  3. lara says:

    Probably not strange, but definitely gross. Used gum from the bottom of a restaurant table. Me: “Where did you get that gum?” 3 year old: “Here (points to underside of table).” Still makes me gag.

    I once heard a story that a kid went to the doctor with an earache and the doctor found a dried pinto bean in his ear that was starting to sprout.

  4. Jon M. says:

    just last week it was blue sidewalk chalk- and he’s got teeth coming in, so with the melt effect it looked like he had eaten a smurf…

  5. Samira says:

    FZ put the little rubber end of a door stopper in her mouth, and luckily I caught her before she swallowed it… my question is: Do these random things have a taste or smell we are not aware of???

  6. LucindasMom says:

    Yuck…she gleefully ate part of a dog biscuit tonight!

  7. Denise K says:

    Middle child: tree roach he found crawling around the water purifier outside. That still makes me wiggle with disgust! Same child: rock in the ear..twice…after the second time, the doctor told me not to send him to school without pockets in his pants. Apparently the little guy liked the rock, wanted to show it to mommy but didn’t have any way to keep it so he stuck it in his ear!

  8. Heidi says:

    My third (and final) son who is close to two years old… sticks everything in his mouth, nose, ears, eyes even… I have no idea why… my other two were certainly not like this. Not to this degree anyway. Sunday night he plucked a chocolate chip out of a fresh made cookie and shoved it down his ear canal. I had to use an “ear irrigator” to remove it. A few things that I have successfully removed from his ear in the last 12 months: mashed potatoes, peas, a craft bead that my 5 year old left in his reach, june bug, a google-eye that fell off a craft hanging on the fridge…. The ear seems most popular next to the mouth. Everything goes in the mouth. He has drooled out my cell phone a couple of times. He eats his big brothers homework. He has located a cigarette butt twice that I know of. Mulch from the playground is popular. I have fished out magnets, insects, coins, marbles, legos, dog and cat food, wads of hair, dust bunnies, an unidentified pill (it was a capsule-didn’t open up-thank God – i don’t know what it was-at the playground), just to name a few… It would have been good if this would have been my FIRST child… it is so hard to remind his siblings (heck even their father) to not leave anything within his reach. I hope he grows out of it soon. At least I know he should have a rather beefy immune system after all of this.

  9. Elizabeth says:

    Yeah…I’m there with you all. Heidi, our kids must be related somehow, because I’ve fished out the same. I actually had cat food, whole pieces of unchewed hubbabubba gum, and decorative flat marbles come out in his poo. Those are fun diapers to change. Doesn’t seem to bother him on the way out though. :) You know their immune systems are gonna be great. We’re going on year two of little to no illnesses. :)

  10. Spanky says:

    When I was about 3 (I am now 58)I allegedly put a bean in my ear that had to be removed by a doctor. I was asked “Why?” and I said to keep the bugs out.

    Aaahhh it could happen to anybody.

  11. Beautie2009 says:

    What is it with Kids and dog/cat food? I think this happens because it is always out in the open. She was always getting into the dogs food. I had to fish a bead out of my daughters nose. She would swallow pennys and rubber bands where her favorite.

  12. slickrick says:

    I once put a tiny tart (Tart-n-Tiny?)….up my nose when I was about 4. My dad had to use a pair of tweezers to get it out. I just remember it burned like nobody’s business and I never tried using my nose as a candy launcher again!

  13. Choche says:

    My older brother could make me do anything…he once told me to put a Mickey Mouse eraser in my nose…I would push it ever so deeper until he told me it was good enough. When it was time to fish it out, I couldn’t so I had to go to the doctor to get it pulled out. My mom was beside herself.

  14. LOVIEDOVIE says:

    my lil sis eats ALL! though it seems like she has no control over it when she puts pennys.ect she goes to mom and mubles trying to ask her to take it out! when we had a cat dog and hamster she ate their food! she called them “ceral” and then would bring out the milk and beg us to give her some. ounce i found a dragon fly in her mouth (i didnt tell mom!) and she thought it was candy thank god she didnt chew it up! she thought it was candy becuese my dad gives her “dragonfly yummy tummys” a rare but good candy heres a tip:dont feed them anything that looks like something they would find around house and DONT PUT STUFF IN THEIR EAR!

  15. Neil says:

    Short answer: anything within arms’ reach.

    My youngest son grabs dog food out of the bowl

    on a regular basis. Most of the time we catch

    him before it is swallowed. Fortunately, I buy

    a brand of dog food that has no ingredients whose

    names cannot be pronounced.

  16. Mimosa says:

    La cucaracha, La Cucaracha…when my now 15 year old was 3. He says he still remembers the taste…sooo gross! Ü

  17. carolathome says:

    When the eldest was two or three, he liked to pretend he was a dog or cat – of course. When he tried to eat the animal’s food from the dish on the floor, he was surprised when I didn’t blink an eye and said “Sure, have all you want.” He did try one piece, but I guess he was not too fond of the taste. Read the ingredients. No worse than trail mix on a piece of bread.