‘SMALL KIDS HAVE A TENDENCY OF PUTTING THINGS IN THEIR MOUTHS OUT OF INNATE CURIOSITY. IT IS MOSTLY DUE TO CARELESSNESS OF PARENTS’
Dr Sibal says, “This is a common problem in small children. We deal with such cases on a daily basis. Most of the time it is not serious but we have to be extremely careful when we are taking out things like batteries, which can perforate and lead to mercury poisoning in the child.”
“Even taking out glass bulbs, which can break, and open safety pins out of a child’s stomach is always tricky.”
Another common problem is accidentally drinking chemicals or medicines.
“I often see children who have ingested either medicines or some chemical accidentally. The treatment depends on how severe the case is, and in most cases stomach wash works well,” says Dr Nitin Verma, associate director, paediatric department, Max Smart Super Speciality Hospital, Saket.
There are many kids who have a habit of eating clay or chalk that gives them an upset stomach. However, it is one of the manageable problems, say doctors. There have been much worse cases that they narrate.
Doctors at AIIMS have even retrieved about a four-foot-long hairball from the abdomen of a four-year-old boy, who was in the habit of eating hair. The surgery to remove the hair ball had taken doctors about an hour.
The boy, Sivam Kumar, suffered from a rare condition called The Rapunzel syndrome wherein the hairball extends from the stomach to the small intestine or beyond.
In Sivam’s case the hairball had covered his large and small intestines both; so much so that there was no space left in his abdomen to accommodate food.
Doctors performed a CT scan of the abdomen where the hairball was clearly visible.
“We took out 117cm-long hair and some amount of thread in red and green colours from his abdomen. It is considered a psychological disorder usually found in adolescent girls,” Dr Shilpa Sharma in the department of paediatric surgery at AIIMS had told HT. Dr Sharma had conducted the surgery on the boy.
Then there is also pet trouble. However, the number of kids who land up in doctors’ clinics or hospitals after having been accidently hurt by their pets is very small in comparison.
Most kids, say doctors, come to them with scratches either by a dog or a cat. It is very rarely that a child gets bitten by the pet. Treatment depends on the case conditioneither just first-aid or a rabies shot in cases where the wound is deep.
Kids are curious and the only way to stop such accidents from happening is by being careful. “We always tell parents to be alert when there is a small child around. You cannot afford to be careless when it comes to small children as they are accident prone,” warns Dr Sibal.