It was there, and then it wasn't.For Christmas Madeline received some small, colorful barrettes to keep her increasingly long hair out of her face. That afternoon she was wearing one, well, until she wasn't wearing one. Once Lacey realized it was missing, she completely deconstructed the area in which it was last seen, stripping things down to their base elements and searching places she had just searched moments ago. It quickly became apparent that the barrette was likely inside Madeline.
A quick Google search showed that once swallowed objects reach the stomach, they're likely to pass on through with little trouble - the esophagus is the tightest squeeze. You just need to be careful of sharp objects that can perforate the GI tract's lining. The barrette was small, smooth and rounded. Madeline wasn't showing any signs of distress and was pretty much her normal self. But upon recommendations from our pediatrician's office, we took Madeline to the hospital for a confirmation x-ray this morning.
The procedure was quick and painless (not that Madeline enjoyed it), and within about 2o minutes the doctor informed us that, in fact, the barrette was visible on the x-ray. "It's down near the bottom," she said, indicating that any adverse reaction was unlikely at that point. We just had to wait and watch.As a fitting coda to the entire episode, Madeline took her regularly scheduled poop as we were packing up to leave the ER. Sure enough, buried within last night's pumpkin and oatmeal was the missing barrette!
Final tally - harm to baby: 0; big lesson for parents: 1
2 comments:
woooow thats crazy! good thing no harm was done!
your not going to re-use that barrette are you?
im glad she is okay!
poor little baby...eating everything in site. Just like Uncle Stephen
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