Safety checklist: What you can do

While the resulting injuries from swallowing a battery can be devastating, Dr. Nikolaus Wolter from SickKids believes this can be a simple and targetable problem. “If we all focus on it,” he said, “I feel we could make children just a little bit safer.” Here are a few things you can do:

■ Check all the devices at home to see which ones have button batteries in them, and make sure they’re securely fastened;

■ When buying items with batteries, look for ones that can only be opened with a screwdriver;

■ For objects where batteries are not screwed in, keep them out of reach or make sure children aren’t playing with them unsupervised.;

■ Just because a battery appears dead doesn’t mean it no longer has any power; it can still have enough energy to create a burn. Make sure to safely discard any batteries you’re no longer using.

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