It is very important for every parent what to do if a child swallows a plastic part and what to do and who to contact. How not to waste precious time?

Danger level

As a rule, plastic parts, such as those in the famous designer, should not be considered particularly dangerous. Moreover, in most cases they can even leave the body naturally, especially if their mass is not large and their contours are spherical or oval.

In addition, all plastics do not change their properties at body temperature, do not oxidize, and are not broken down by pancreatic enzymes or gastric acid.

However, everything is not as cloudless as it might seem at first glance. The process of moving a plastic object through the intestinal tube will irritate the intestinal mucosa, which will lead to spasms of the intestinal tube.

As a result, there is a possibility of developing acute intestinal obstruction - a life-threatening condition that, without emergency medical care, will lead to death.

In addition to intestinal obstruction, ingestion of plastic foreign objects can lead to organ perforation. True, in the case of plastic products this probability is small.

If a part gets into the windpipe when swallowed, a serious condition may develop associated with blockage of the larynx by a foreign object, which will lead to acute suffocation.

Clinical manifestations

When a foreign object gets into the windpipe, a special, characteristic symptom complex arises, which cannot be confused with anything else. In such situations, a coughing attack occurs, the child’s face turns blue or pale, and drooling sharply increases.

If a plastic foreign object gets into digestive system, especially if the object is small in size, it is possible that no pathological manifestations will occur. The child can be quite active, his behavior will not differ from usual, natural functions will correspond to the norm.

If an object is swallowed large sizes, most likely there will be pain in the throat or behind the sternum, increased salivation, fear, and possibly nausea and vomiting. It is possible that the intensity and location of pain will change, correlating with the advancement of the foreign object.

Procedure

First of all, without wasting a second of time, you need to call ambulance. If the child’s condition is satisfactory, and the time of arrival of the emergency team is not determined, it is better to get to the medical facility on your own.

What not to do with a child who has swallowed a plastic part?

It is strictly forbidden to force a child to cough, give enemas, provoke vomiting, give laxatives, or give a piece of stale bread to push through a foreign object.

Children are very inquisitive and enjoy trying the world to taste. Therefore, parents are not always able to protect them from swallowing various foreign objects or inhaling their parts.

He talks about how to act in such a situation pediatrician highest category Evgeny Komarovsky.

What do they choke on and is it dangerous?

There are a wide variety of objects that a child may swallow or inhale, and the severity of the situation must be assessed based on what exactly the baby has swallowed. It is clear that a small and smooth cherry pit that gets into the digestive tract will not cause any harm to the baby. You don’t have to worry - after a while the baby successfully goes to the toilet and the same cherry pit will be found in the feces. The same can be said about situations in which a child suddenly swallows gum.

Therefore, parents should evaluate the nature of the surface of the swallowed object, as well as its size.

Even if a child swallows a plastic part from a construction set, one should talk about danger only if this part has sharp, uneven edges, which theoretically could injure the esophagus or intestinal walls.

In this case, parents should definitely contact a medical facility, even if the child looks good and does not show any negative symptoms. Signs may appear later, and it is important to prevent this.

However, a foreign body that enters the respiratory tract rarely “behaves” without symptoms. And such an incident often requires emergency assistance. Indeed, swallowed by itself foreign object, even if it is paper, a napkin, or if the baby chokes on food, may well harm the child, but much more often he is harmed by the unreasonable and incorrect actions of colicky parents.

Parents should at least have a rough idea of ​​not only the size and texture of what they swallow, but also the volume.

A harmless cherry pit will not cause harm if there is one, maximum two or three. But just a handful of these seeds can cause intestinal obstruction.

What to do?

If a child swallows a foreign object and begins to feel sick, then Komarovsky does not advise parents to interfere with this important process - the gag reflex is very wisely invented by nature precisely to rid the body of a foreign object.

If an object is swallowed and the baby does not show reflexive attempts to get rid of it, but the object belongs to the group of dangerous, it is important to immediately call an ambulance. While the doctors are traveling, the child should not be given anything to eat or drink.

If the object is safe and does not bother the child in any way, then you should wait until it leaves the child’s body in a completely natural way along with feces during bowel movements.

It is much more difficult to independently deal with the situation when a child has inhaled a small object. A foreign body stuck in the trachea is manifested by a strong suffocating cough, limited inhalation, cyanosis (blue discoloration of the skin and lips) may appear, the child may bulge his eyes, he will suffocate and may even lose consciousness.

If the child is breathing, there is no need to do anything, you need to wait for the ambulance. The maximum that needs to be done if the baby has independent breathing is to open the windows wide and ensure an influx large quantity regular fresh air.

Attempts to hit the child on the back or shake his head down will not lead to any good - the object can move further along the trachea and lead to mechanical asphyxia.

If a foreign body becomes lodged in the gastrointestinal tract, symptoms will depend on where exactly it occurs. When the esophagus is blocked, difficulty swallowing occurs, saliva flows intensely, and there is pain in the chest area.

If an object is stuck in the stomach, there will be pain in the stomach and an unproductive urge to vomit. When the intestines are blocked, abdominal pain occurs, blood and mucus appear in the stool, there may be no bowel movements, and bloating may occur.

First aid

Komarovsky advises providing first aid only if the child is not breathing. In this case, the Heimlich maneuver, which every mother should know, will help. While the baby is coughing, this means that there is a chance that the body itself will get rid of the foreign object.

If the cough stops and the object does not come out, you need to move on to active action.

• Take a position behind the child, with the front of your body facing his back, and hug him from behind with your arms.
• Make a fist with your right hand and place it at the bend thumb on the tummy between the navel and ribs.
• The open palm of the second hand is placed on top of the fist and with quick and precise movements the fist is pressed into the stomach.
• Repeat as many times as necessary to clear the airways. If everything worked out, the skin acquires a normal color, breathing is restored.

If the child is small, place him on a hard, flat surface (the floor) and take a kneeling position next to him. The middle and index fingers of the mother’s hands should be placed on the child in the same epigastric region described above; the pressure should be applied gently, upward towards the diaphragm.

If a child has pushed something into his nose, Komarovsky recommends using a technique called “mother’s kiss.” The technique was invented in 1965 by Canadian emergency physician Stephanie Cook.

The essence of the method is this:

1. the mother presses her lips tightly to the baby’s mouth;
2. closes the nostril free from foreign objects with your hand;
3. inhales forcefully into the baby's mouth;
4. the air flow “presses” on the foreign object and it leaves the place in the nasal passages.

The method helps in about 60% of cases. But even if the appointment is successful, the child must still be examined by a doctor as soon as possible.

Watch another first aid technique from Dr. Komarovsky in the following video.

Prohibited Parental Activities

While the ambulance is traveling, an open window and vigilant monitoring of the baby’s behavior and well-being by adults will be enough.

There is no need to try to push objects stuck in the esophagus or nose using any available means. Parents who have ever met or heard from the older generation recommendations to give a choking child something hard, for example, a bread crust or cracker, can reach this point.

If a potentially dangerous object is swallowed and there is no vomiting, some parents risk giving a laxative or mechanically inducing vomiting by pressing on the root of the tongue. An object that is too sharp, such as glass, if successfully swallowed, can seriously injure the esophagus when vomiting.

While you are waiting for the emergency medical team to arrive, do not allow a child who has choked to actively move, jump, or run. And even more so, there is no need to shake him, pound him on the back with a fist, scream, panic and additionally frighten the child.

No matter how hard we try to protect the baby from danger, no one is immune from accidents. Therefore, all parents should know how to provide first aid to kid. After all, the life of a baby may depend on the actions of loved ones, especially since in emergency situations, minutes sometimes count.

According to statistics, every year millions of foreign bodies enter the gastrointestinal tract of children. This occurs as a result of careless handling of small objects and due to parental oversight. How not to get confused in such a situation?

Most often, the diagnosis of “foreign body” is made in the early childhood. As soon as babies begin to crawl and then walk, they quickly master territories and objects that were previously inaccessible to them, and some of them must strictly be kept out of the reach of children. Acquaintance with new objects occurs in the most detailed way through all available senses. The child needs to turn and examine the “toy” from all sides, be sure to smell it, and most importantly, determine the degree of its edibility. The result of such curiosity is that objects end up in the mouth, and then into the baby’s gastrointestinal tract or respiratory tract.

If you witness such a situation, immediately call an ambulance. The baby must be under medical supervision, even if in the first hours there are no symptoms and he feels well. Foreign bodies with sharp edges (needles, pins, badges, etc.) can get stuck in various parts of the gastrointestinal tract, which increases the risk of puncturing its wall. Large and heavy foreign bodies (eg metal ball), which do not come out on their own and remain in the intestine for a long time, can cause significant damage to the wall with bleeding or perforation (violation of integrity). Therefore, if a foreign body gets into the gastrointestinal tract, you must make sure that it comes out, for which you carefully examine each child’s stool.

If the child was not in your field of vision when everything happened, identifying the presence of a foreign body in the gastrointestinal tract will be much more difficult. In addition, often children, fearing punishment, hide this fact from their parents.

Typically, babies swallow small things - toys or their parts, coins, buttons, fruit seeds. As a rule, the child does not experience any unpleasant sensations, except for fear. In the future, the baby may not have any complaints, since in most cases small objects come out on their own within 2-3 days.

If an object of considerable size blocks the lumen of the esophagus, then choking, profuse salivation, and possibly hiccups, belching, nausea, and vomiting immediately appear. Any food and water eaten comes back out.

Be careful of batteries!

Seek medical attention immediately if a battery is found to be a foreign body. In the stomach containing hydrochloric acid, the nutrient element, oxidizing and releasing aggressive substances, can damage the mucous membrane due to a chemical burn. Ulcers can form in this area, leading to life-threatening complications. Disc batteries are especially dangerous in the esophagus, where they can quickly cause necrosis and perforation (death and rupture) of the esophagus wall.

A child has swallowed a foreign object: what to do?

As you can see, the baby’s behavior and symptoms will depend on the size, shape, and material of the object that the child swallowed. If you suspect the presence of a foreign body in the gastrointestinal tract, the first step should be to resolve the issue of transporting the baby to the hospital as soon as possible. It is urgent to call an ambulance and take the child to a hospital, preferably to a multidisciplinary one, which has surgical, X-ray, endoscopic, and ultrasound departments available around the clock. In Moscow these are Izmailovskaya Children's City Clinical Hospital, Filatovskaya Children's City Clinical Hospital, St. Vladimir Hospital, etc.

Before the ambulance arrives, parents should not make any attempts to pull out, shake out, or “push” the foreign body further into the stomach (for example, by giving the child bread). Your actions can only cause harm. You cannot feed or give water to the child, including. You can moisten your lips with water if they are dry. We must try, if possible, to calm the baby and collect Required documents to the hospital: medical insurance for the child and mother.

If the baby is coughing, choking, or choking, you can tap the edge of your palm or your fingers on his back between the shoulder blades, directing the blows from bottom to top, throwing the baby over your knee so that the upper body is lowered. A child under 1 year of age is placed face down on the arm, the head is slightly lowered, the index or middle finger of the “supporting” hand is placed in the child’s mouth, opening it, and the back is patted with the free hand. This should not be done if the baby is able to breathe, as sharp pats may dislodge the object in such a way that it blocks or causes swelling in the airway, making breathing very difficult. Do not forget that the main goal of the actions taken is to facilitate breathing (if it is difficult). If there is no difficulty breathing, then you should wait for the ambulance to arrive.

In the hospital: examination and removal

In the emergency department, the child is examined by a pediatrician and a surgeon, and if necessary, additional examinations: X-ray, endoscopic or ultrasound. It should be remembered that only metallic foreign bodies, stones and some types of glass are visible on an x-ray - plastic and wooden objects are not detected due to the texture of the material. Based on the examination and these research methods, a diagnosis is made and the level of location of the foreign body is determined. The child is left in the hospital and in most cases is observed until the object comes out on its own (usually 2-3 days), with a laxative prescribed.

If urgent removal of a foreign body is necessary or its movement through the gastrointestinal tract is difficult, then in 99% of cases the endoscopic method of treatment helps. This is possible when the foreign body is located no lower than the duodenum, where a fibroesophagogastroduodenoscope can be reached (endoscope 1, with which you can remove a foreign body from the upper parts of the gastrointestinal tract: esophagus, stomach, initial parts of the small intestine). Removal of a foreign body occurs using an endoscopic loop, basket or clamps passed through an endoscope, which is inserted through the mouth 2.

Sometimes a foreign body can be pushed through with a device, and in the future, when taking a laxative, this will help it leave the body naturally faster. If it is not possible to remove the foreign body endoscopically, laparoscopic or abdominal surgery is performed, which is always more traumatic for the body and is associated with a much larger number of possible complications. Laparoscopic surgery differs from abdominal surgery in that a large incision is not made on the anterior abdominal wall, but a laparoscope 3 and special surgical instruments used by surgeons are inserted into the abdominal cavity through small holes. The method of surgical intervention is chosen by the surgeon depending on where the foreign body is located, what its shape and size are, taking into account the child’s condition.

Prevention

You should not leave your baby alone unattended. It is necessary to remove small dangerous objects out of reach of the baby. You should be extremely careful when choosing toys: they should be appropriate for the baby’s age and not have small or easily breakable parts.

1 Endoscope - (Greek endo - “inside”, skopeo - “to examine, examine”) is the general name of tubular optical devices with a lighting device, designed for visual examination of cavities and channels of the body into which the endoscope is inserted through natural or artificial openings.
2 See article "Endoscopy", No. 4, 2007.
3 A laparoscope (Greek lapara - belly, skopeo - “to examine, examine”) is a type of endoscope, which is a metal tube with a complex system of lenses and a light guide. The laparoscope is designed to transmit images from abdominal cavity human body.

Alexey Krasavin, endoscopist,
Izmailovskaya Children's City Clinical Hospital, Moscow

Pieces of glass often end up in drinks if you are not careful when opening bottles with a corkscrew. Sometimes the store has a defective bottle with small pieces of glass at the bottom. Small children may swallow a piece of broken glass from Christmas decorations. How risky is this for life? People sometimes accidentally swallow pieces of glass. This material is extremely strong and will not be digested in the stomach. In addition, the fragments have dangerous sharp edges. What happens if you swallow a small piece of glass? What to do: rush to the hospital or try home remedies?

Features of the structure of the esophagus

The gastrointestinal tract is a long, flexible muscular tube. If a person swallows food, the muscles contract and push the food further. Indigestible edible substances and inedible objects pass through the tract unchanged.

Man-made substances (iron, glass, plastic) do not change in the intestinal tract, so swallowing these items is risky.

What happens if you eat glass?

The risk of foreign bodies entering the body cannot be excluded. What happens if you swallow a small piece of glass? The entire danger depends on its shape and volume. Sharp pieces of glass can cause organ damage. What happens if you eat a piece of glass with pointed ends? Minor tissue puncture and mild bleeding in the intestinal tract may occur. Blood can be found in a fecal test.

But what happens if you swallow a small piece of glass with food? Once food is swallowed, it quickly passes through the esophagus into the stomach. In a narrow section of the stomach there is an exit, the pylorus. Pieces that are too large cannot come out through it. They remain in the stomach. The doctor is able to remove pieces through the mouth using a flexible device - an endoscope. Anything that gets past the gatekeeper is unlikely to cause problems.

What happens if you swallow a small piece of glass? It is more dangerous to swallow small pieces with sharp ends. They can cut through tissue and cause infection.

Symptoms of swallowing an unsafe object

What happens if you swallow a small piece of glass with water, because the oral cavity and the human tongue are very sensitive? Usually a person has time to identify foreign bodies before swallowing.

However, children sometimes taste different things and drinks and may swallow unwanted objects. A father and mother can immediately find out that their child has swallowed an object hazardous to health. A number of signs indicate that the child has swallowed a small piece of glass.

Among them:

• vomit;
• salivation;
• stomach ache;
• difficulty swallowing;
• change in stool;
• strange noises in the stomach.

If any of these signs occur, the child should be immediately shown to a doctor or an ambulance should be called. Small pieces from bottles and glasses are not so easy to see on x-ray. If there is no severe acute pain, doctors wait 24 hours for the fragments to come out completely on their own.

What is the threat to children?

There is a health hazard if a child swallows a splinter. What happens if you swallow a small piece of glass? Little explorers are curious and best method analyze surrounding objects - taste them. Glass objects are often the subject of study. In this case, you need to know what the risk of swallowing glass is. The outcome of the situation depends on the characteristics, shape and surface of the element. The child can eat a piece of the glass. So, what happens if you swallow a piece of glass from a glass? It gets stuck in the esophagus and can damage it. If the object is evenly shaped (for example, balls), you can consider yourself lucky. The danger is limited to the usual getting stuck in the stomach, and damage can be ruled out. There is no need to worry, because there are a number of methods with which you can free yourself from a stuck object. The most important thing is to act quickly, especially if the situation has formed in full view of the parents.

What to do if your baby eats a splinter?

What to do if you swallow a small piece of glass? If a child has eaten glass, the most important thing is to remain calm and not panic. A similar situation can happen to anyone, so it is important to act quickly and clearly.

Firstly, you can carefully remove the visible part of the object yourself, and secondly, you need to call an ambulance. There is no need to leave everything to chance, since a piece that gets inside the body can cause serious consequences. Small pieces can be directly removed, but even they are capable of touching internal organs. If the piece is large, it can get stuck in the stomach for a long time. In this case, you cannot do without surgery.

Immediate action if glass enters the stomach

If a person immediately notices swallowing glass, then it is best to induce vomiting. The piece will be quickly removed from the body with food and mucus, without causing much damage. If this happens to a child, vomiting must be induced artificially by pressing on the root of the tongue.

After this, even after making sure that the fragment has come out, you need to contact the doctor, describing the situation. He will give advice for subsequent actions and prescribe a study that will detect defects in internal organs, if any.

Urgent actions:

1. If the glass does not come out with vomiting, you must immediately call an ambulance, outlining the situation, and prepare for hospitalization.
2. If it took more than 2 hours, the parts could have time to move into the intestinal tract and worsen the situation. Then only a highly qualified doctor will decide what to do, who should be informed as clearly as possible about the size of the fragment and the time of the accident.
3. X-rays are often ineffective in such situations, since the glass in its reflections does not contrast.
4. You shouldn’t count on the fact that the fragment is very small and sit at home until it comes out naturally.
5. The use of laxatives and enemas is also not recommended without medical examination.
6. If the fragment does not go immediately after vomiting, secondary efforts can be dangerous, therefore, calling a doctor and waiting for an ambulance to arrive would be preferable.
7. A lot of activity during this period is also harmful, since every movement can provoke internal injuries.

Small pieces often actually leave the body naturally, causing virtually no inconvenience to their owner. However, you should not count on this, since ignoring it in this case threatens severe injuries and even death.

Small children often swallow glass accidentally. In order to avoid the penetration of glass into the body, you should carefully monitor the child. It is not recommended to allow glass objects to be used for games. Such accessories should be kept out of the reach of children. Parents are required to wean their child from holding various objects in his mouth.

To prevent your child from accidentally falling on glass objects, the following rules should be followed:

• We must not forget fragile products in the child’s field of view;
• remove all breakable decorative items from the reach of children;
• if a glass object is broken, protect the child by keeping it away from the broken glass and carefully collect everything;
• follow your child while walking outside;
• do not leave the baby alone for a long time;
• Do not feed from glass containers.

Conclusion

Glass is a dangerous foreign object. It has the potential to cause fairly serious injury.

Swallowing glass can cause injury to the mouth and digestive tract. Therefore, it is necessary to be careful and, if emergency, take urgent measures.

Here you will learn what to do if you swallow an object: fish bones, a piece of meat, fragments of large bones, artificial teeth, and in children - buttons, coins, needles, pins, batteries, fruit seeds, etc. can get stuck in the esophagus.

When providing first aid if an object is swallowed, the victim can be recommended to swallow liquid food, oiled porridge, and water. In this case, the esophagus relaxes, and the stuck foreign body or object can pass (fall) into the stomach. If this does not help, then the patient who swallowed the object should be immediately referred to a doctor.

You should remember if you swallowed an object that you should not swallow a crust of bread when there is a bone in the esophagus - this can stick it into the mucous membrane of the esophagus.

Swallowed coins, nails, pins, hairpins, batteries and other objects enter the gastrointestinal tract (more often in children).

In the vast majority of cases, a swallowed foreign body that has passed the esophagus travels to the rectum within 5-10 days and comes out.

Impressive people need to be reassured when helping them; those who have swallowed objects should be given more bulky foods (vegetable and mashed potatoes, all kinds of cereals, cabbage, mucous decoctions). Laxatives should not be used.

If sharp and bulky objects (needles, spoons) enter the mouth through the mouth, the victim should be sent to the hospital for constant x-ray monitoring of the object’s progress through the intestines.

Pieces of sugar, fruit seeds, artificial teeth, seeds, hunting cartridge caps, batteries and other objects can get into the windpipe - trachea, bronchi. And immediately a paroxysmal cough appears, which indicates that a foreign body has entered the windpipe and not the esophagus when swallowed. The victim, in fright, grabs his throat and runs out of the room. Making unnecessary movements, he spends a lot of energy, turns blue (from lack of air), and wheezes. The people around him are rushing around in panic, not knowing how to help. This depresses the victim even more; he loses strength and hope for salvation.

When providing assistance, especially to children, it is necessary first of all to create complete physical rest, provide a flow of clean air and try to remove the swallowed foreign body using a simple and accessible technique. The child must be lifted upside down and shaken; at the same time another adult squeezes rhythmically chest, increasing exhalation (as with artificial respiration). Due to its gravity and the push of air when the chest is compressed, an object from the lungs or windpipe can fall into the mouth.

If a swallowed voluminous foreign body is visible in the pharynx, you must very carefully remove it with an instrument or finger, taking all measures to ensure that the object is not pushed further. If the victim has suffocated or lost consciousness, artificial respiration must be started immediately.

There are, for example, such cases: a five-year-old boy drank tea with sugar in his bite and, laughing, choked. Wriggling convulsively, he turned blue. His father grabbed him in his arms and, trying to hold him, strongly squeezed his chest. A piece of sugar flew out of the trachena, and all the symptoms of suffocation disappeared. An accidental strong exhalation saved the child's life.

Or here's another example. A six-year-old boy was eating compote and choked. An apricot seed got into the trachea. To push it further, the parents, thinking that it was in the esophagus, began tapping the child on the back. His condition worsened noticeably, and he died on the second day. During the autopsy, the bone was found in the place where the trachea divides into two bronchi. They almost completely covered their lumen.

If the boy had immediately been turned upside down and, shaking him, exhaled forcefully, the bone could have fallen out or at least remained in the wider lumen of the trachea, and then the child could have been saved by a called doctor.

In all cases of ingested foreign bodies entering the respiratory tract, victims should be immediately sent to the hospital or receive medical assistance on the spot. When evacuating the patient, he must be accompanied by medical worker, during the journey it is necessary to maintain cardiovascular activity and breathing.