The ingestion of a foreign body is known as the entry of any foreign body into the cavity; Such as a child swallowing a piece of plastic, a piece of metal, or a battery, swallowing a balloon, buttons, pins, or fish bones, coins that all settle in the airway or food stream in children or adults, intentionally or unintentionally, and most of the injuries are between From 6 months to 4 years old.
Swallowing a foreign body is a major problem, especially among children from 6 months to 3 years old, as some cases of swallowing foreign bodies may cause suffocation and sometimes death. Many mothers face the problem of swallowing a foreign body from their children, as they may complain that their child swallowed a piece of metal or a piece of plastic, or that a child swallowed a piece of iron, or peeled a core, or swallowed a nail, and the mother comes in panic to the doctor and complains and asks: What to do if that My son swallowed an “iron nut”? What happens if a child swallows a piece of plastic, and what are the symptoms of a child swallowing a foreign body? How can swallowing foreign bodies be treated?
First of all, swallowing a foreign body is not limited to children, although it is the most common, but adults may face swallowing a foreign body, as the date kernel may be accidentally swallowed by adults, and some adolescents do this deliberately, to attract attention or as a result of mental and psychological illnesses, and they are asked to review Mental health clinics!
The adults do it
The ENT consultant, Dr. Fatima Banaz, revealed that the age group exposed to swallowing foreign bodies is between the ages of 10 months to 3 years, because of their love to discover what is around them and put everything remarkable in their mouth to taste, or the patient has special needs and cannot differentiate between Food and toys, and the child at this age is in a stage of growth and cannot control the muscles of the larynx and swallow properly, which leads to swallowing the foreign body and its occurrence in the esophagus or its descent into the airway.
She added that foreign objects that doctors encounter are usually parts of toys, date seeds (especially in Ramadan), grains (falsaf), or circular batteries, which are dangerous because they interact with mucous membranes and cause serious chemical burns.
As for the symptoms, they differ between swallowing the foreign body in the esophagus or suffocating with the foreign body from the airway, and the symptoms of swallowing the foreign body and its occurrence in the esophagus are continuous reflux and pain in the neck, continuous crying and weakness in the voice, dehydration, and loss of appetite. A symptom of choking on a foreign body is difficulty breathing.
And Dr. Fatima indicated that the treatment methods depend on the speed of removing the foreign body without delay, according to the attending physician’s vision, either with a hard or soft endoscope, or through surgery.
Here..surgery is necessary
Foreign bodies are considered harmless if the foreign body is in the stomach and the child can eat, has no symptoms, does not have difficulty breathing, and the child can safely return home. The foreign body is assumed to have passed through the digestive system.
As for the harmful foreign bodies, the treatment depends on the location of the foreign body, and the doctor examines the location of the body through x-ray imaging, and in this case the doctor decides to keep the child in the hospital under observation and allow him to eat and drink, and after that, perhaps, the doctor repeats the x-ray X-rays within 3 to 7 days, or decide to remove the foreign body immediately, which – of course – requires surgery or the use of a tube attached to a camera to remove the foreign body from the esophagus.
