Often marketed as toys, water beads have been linked to child deaths overseas. Leading doctors have issued an emergency warning over a popular toy which could be given to children over Christmas. Water beads, often used as sensory toys for children or as home decor, have been linked to child deaths overseas and to “serious harm” to children in the UK, the The Royal College of Emergency Medicine (RCEM).
![[The beads can grow to 400-times their size in around 36 hours (Alamy/PA)]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/23/00/19120824-d9757730-1b81-484b-97c9-f86e78067fd1.jpg)
Despite being marketed as toys, water beads could pose a serious danger to children as if swallowed, could expand inside a child and cause bowel obstruction – which needs surgery to remove. The beads start small, only a few millimetres wide, but can grow to 400 times their size in around 36 hours when exposed to liquid.
![[Dr Salwa Malik, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, asked parents to “think twice” about gifting the beads]](https://static.independent.co.uk/2024/12/20/16/newFile.jpg)
They are not visible on X-rays. The safety alert has been issued to emergency doctors to make sure they know what to look out for while working, but the College also wants to warn parents and carers of the dangers. The RCEM safety flash also highlights concerns about the potential for children to swallow button or coin batteries and magnets, which can lodge in the food pipe of young children causing serious harm or death due to a chemical reaction which erodes tissue.
Dr Salwa Malik, vice president of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine, asked parents to “think twice” about gifting these goods, having seen the “devastating and detrimental” of their effects firsthand. “Any one of these three objects could be found under your tree or in a stocking this festive season, hidden in gifts that are intended to bring joy to a child or vulnerable person, but which, if swallowed, could result in critical illness and the need for emergency medical treatment,” Dr Malik said.
