TALLMADGE, Ohio — Sumiah Hamdan is urging all parents to thoroughly check their children's toys after her 2-year-old daughter Nahlah Miah Barber died when she accidentally swallowed a button battery on March 19.
Hamdan told News 5 the button battery somehow came out of a squeeze toy her daughter was playing with and her daughter swallowed the battery. Hamdan said her daughter became very sick hours later and depite her father rushing the child to Akron's Children's Hospital, doctors were unable to save her.
Hamdan believes parents shouldn't let their young children play with toys that utilize button batteries.
“If you catch it you’re lucky, but if you don’t catch it it’s just like that, not everybody has symptoms and she didn’t," Hamdan said. “It’s a super slim chance that you’ll see your baby pick it up and just eat it, it’s super slim and they should not be in toys.”
Hamdan is also calling on the Consumer Product Safety Commission and toy manufactures to improve toy safety standards.
“All these cases are from kids toys and it’s like why are they so easily accessible, why are they in kids toys period, it shouldn't be about the sales it should be about the safety," Hamdan said. “And the companies that’s how they should be thinking, how are we going to protect these kids, not yes we need this to sell this product we can’t change it.”
Jennifer Walker, Manager, of the University Hospitals Rainbow Injury Crisis Center told News 5 parents need to take their children directly to the emergency room immediately if they suspect their child has swallowed a button battery.
“The button batteries are a real danger to children and it’s kind of surprising how many things that they’re in when you think about it," Walker said. “If you suspect that your child has ingested a button battery, don’t induce vomiting, don’t have them eat or drink anything, just get them assessed by a medical professional right away, because time is of the essence, when a child swallows a button battery, that saliva triggers the electrical current and that chemical reaction that can burn the esophagus and it can start in as little as two hours.”
Walker said there are many steps a parent can take suggested by the University Hospitals Childhood Injury Prevention Centerto better "child proof" their home.
“One of the things that we say in child proofing in general is get down at their level, get down on the ground, look at things from their perspective and recognizing they put everything in their mouths," Walker said. “A lot of times a good test that we do for choking hazards is if it can fit through a toilet paper roll it’s small enough to be swallowed or to be a chocking hazard.”
In August 2022, News 5 reported ona Barberton mother's warning about button batteries after her daughter accidentally swallowed one of the batteries, but was treated and released after a doctor at Akron Children's Hopsital confirmed the use of honey during treatment helped reduce the child's injuries.
Meanwhile, Hamdan has started a petition drive to ban toys for young children that utilize a button batteries.
“It shouldn't be in kids toys at all," Hamdan said “That’s all you need is that split second and these batteries are not worth it.”
