Light-up Halloween toys use button batte

Call your local emergency number or poison centre right now — a swallowed button battery from a light-up toy is a same-minute emergency in a toddler, even if she looks fine, even if she never coughed, even if the ring "only" had a coin-sized cell. Don't wait to see what happens, and don't drive to a different hospital first — ask the operator which emergency department to go to and head there or let the ambulance come to you. Tell me what country and city you're in so I can give you the correct local number; your language doesn't tell me that, and I won't invent one.

What you tried vs what works tonight/today

• Waited to see if she'd cough — stop waiting now. A button battery stuck in the gullet can start burning through tissue within 2 hours, and a toddler who plays, eats, and laughs normally can still have one lodged in her throat. The cough is not the test — an X-ray is. "She seems fine" is the most dangerous phase, not a safe one.
• Do this in the next few minutes, alongside the call:

- Grab the toy's packaging and any matching battery still inside the toy or another toy in the house. The clinician needs the size code on the wrapper (CR2032, CR2025, CR2016, LR44, etc.) and the millimetre number — the packaging carries that.
- Photograph the open battery compartment of the toy if it is still in sight. A clear phone photo is almost as useful as the toy itself.
- Write down, on your phone or a scrap of paper: when the ring was last seen closed, when you found it open (your note said Mon 18:10), whether she coughed, drooled, refused to swallow, pointed to her throat, vomited, or cried differently in the last hour or two. "No" answers matter — write them down too.
- Note her approximate weight if you know it (the clinician will ask), and the elder or sibling's names so they can be looked after while you travel.

• What the dispatcher will tell you on the phone: which emergency department, whether to drive or wait for an ambulance, and whether anything is safe to give by mouth on the way. Follow their wording exactly — they have the local pathway and the battery-size guidance for tonight.

What NOT to do

• Don't induce vomiting. Doesn't help and burns the gullet on the way back up.
• Don't give a measured dose of honey, milk, water, juice, or food from this turn. The pre-hospital mitigation for button battery ingestion is a clinical decision that depends on her age, weight, time since ingestion, and whether her airway is safe — the poison centre or the ER gives that order, not a home recipe. The honey jar on the counter is not a substitute for that call. (Honey is also not given at all to a child under 12 months, ever, for any reason.)
• Don't give activated charcoal, syrup of ipecac, or a "wait and see" dose of anything. All three are wrong for this.
• Don't put her to bed "to see how the night goes." Burns can progress while she sleeps, and "she slept through it" is the story behind the worst outcomes.
• Don't take "she seems fine" as the result. The result is the X-ray and the clinician's signed plan, not her mood.
• Don't hunt the internet for a fix or buy anything online. This is an ER procedure with possible removal under anaesthetic — there is no home protocol that works.
• Don't chase the toy / another battery around the house with her unsupervised. Park her with the other adult or in a safe spot while you make the call and pack the bag.

Red flags — go or call back now, no extra wait

If any of these appears between now and the door, leave immediately or call emergency services again:

• Drooling, or refusing to swallow her favourite drink.
• Crying that's different — high-pitched, weak, hoarse, or a strange moan.
• Vomiting, especially repeated, or any blood in the vomit.
• Trouble breathing, noisy breathing on the breath in, chest pulling in, going pale or blue.
• Black, red, or "coffee-ground" stool in the next hours or tomorrow (bleeding lower down).
• Coughing or gagging that started after the discovery.
• Pain when she swallows, or holding her neck or throat.
• Anything that looks like she's "not herself" — quiet when she's loud, floppy when she usually moves, won't make eye contact.

A toddler who has swallowed a button battery goes to the ER even when every red flag is "no." The X-ray is the test, not her mood, and not the absence of coughing.

What a good 24 hours looks like

She was seen in the emergency department, an X-ray (and follow-up imaging if needed) was taken, the battery was either removed or the team gave you a clear written plan for it to pass safely with a return-date, you left with a "come back if" list you can screenshot, and the elder or sibling at home knows the same list. "She never coughed" is not a good outcome — only the clinician's cleared X-ray and signed discharge is. If the discharge doesn't include a written "come back if" list, ask for one in writing before you leave the department.

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Country and city? Once I have them I can give you the right local number and the right emergency department to head for.