Pennsylvania
Baby in Pennsylvania on road to recovery after swallowing two water beads: ‘Not worth the risk’
A mom in Pennsylvania is sounding the alarm after her youngest baby was lately hospitalized from the well being disaster she suffered after she swallowed a number of water beads.
“I actually cannot emphasize sufficient how harmful these water beads are to youngsters, infants, even pets,” Whitney Reese, an ICU nurse and mom of three, advised Fox Information Digital in an interview.
These objects, she went on, “shouldn’t be in a home or in any facility the place kids will be uncovered. They’re so harmful and never well worth the danger, even the slightest bit.”
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Harper Reese, 1, was hospitalized on Jan. 3, 2023, her first birthday, after her mother and father observed she was exhibiting unusual signs.
“About 5 days previous to her hospitalization, Harper was breaking out in a really mysterious rash throughout her physique,” Reese mentioned.
Younger Harper Reese is proven recovering within the hospital after her first surgical procedure tried to find the water beads she swallowed, her mom mentioned. (Whitney Reese)
Even her pediatrician was stumped on the time, mentioned Reese.
“Wanting again, we imagine it was a response from the water beads, making [the rash] her very first symptom,” mentioned the mother.
Water beads had been initially used as “agricultural merchandise supposed to take care of soil moisture,” based on Poison.org, an internet site that tracks hazardous merchandise.
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Florists additionally use them to maintain floral preparations hydrated. As well as, the beads are used as fluid absorbers in merchandise resembling diapers.
Water beads are additionally “marketed as kids’s toys or therapies for youngsters with sensory processing or autism spectrum issues,” the web site notes.
After Harper started vomiting uncontrollably, her mother and father took her to the emergency room. There, her signs progressed. Her stomach grew to become distended and she or he grew to become much more torpid.
Harper’s stomach grew to become very distended as medical doctors struggled to seek out out what should be blamed for her sickness, her mom Whitney Reese advised Fox Information Digital. (Whitney Reese)
“There have been days within the hospital earlier than the water bead was found that she slept about 98% of the day,” Reese additionally mentioned. “She had zero power.”
Docs initially couldn’t decide what was incorrect. But Reese had a “intestine feeling” for days that her daughter unintentionally ingested a water bead, she famous.
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Reese had bought the water beads from Amazon as a sensory toy for her older kids. She allowed them to play with the beads solely beneath her supervision through the child’s naps.
Fox Information Digital reached out to Amazon for remark.
A couple of month earlier than Harper acquired sick, Reese mentioned she really disposed of all of the water beads in her residence after she learn social media posts in regards to the objects’ potential risks.
“I did not even assume they had been nonetheless in our home,” she mentioned. “However some should have gotten unfastened, and [Harper] one way or the other should’ve discovered some.”
Water beads increase when moist and shrink all the way down to an almost invisible dimension when dry, mother Whitney Reese of Pennsylvania mentioned. (iStock)
Child Harper managed to swallow two of the beads; her mom nonetheless has no thought the place the bhild discovered them, she mentioned.
On the hospital, the child’s intestinal blockage was not displaying up on X-rays. Docs initially suspected she had some type of a cyst, mentioned Reese.
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“The medical doctors didn’t imagine it was a water bead as a result of ‘we might be capable of see one thing on X-ray, or we might’ve seen it in her exploratory laparotomy,’” Reese recounted. “They believed it was only a virus.”
“It took over three weeks” after the child was discharged for her “vomiting to subside.”
After greater than 5 days of Harper’s sickness, Reese mentioned medical doctors had been nonetheless considering the child’s issues had been as a consequence of a virus.
Harper’s mom had a “intestine feeling” her child woman had one way or the other swallowed a water bead, though the mother had thrown the beads away a month earlier. (Whitney Reese)
Reese was skeptical. She mentioned she advised medical doctors, “There isn’t a method that is nonetheless a virus after we are greater than 5 days out from the primary signs.”
Harper then handed the primary water bead she had swallowed.
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“[The] medical doctors could not imagine it as a result of they did not see it on stomach X-rays, so they honestly didn’t imagine she had an intestinal blockage,” Reese defined.
One of many water beads that child Harper swallowed is proven right here. (Whitney Reese)
It was decided that Harper had a minimum of one extra water bead remaining in her system.
The bead expanded, mentioned the mother — and medical doctors then carried out surgical procedure to take away this bead.
“It’s taking time for her develop that belief in different individuals.”
Younger Harper is now residence from the hospital — and her restoration is progressing slowly, mentioned Reese.
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“After having a bowel resection and … all of the irritation and edema the water beads brought on, her bowels had been nonetheless very irritated,” she mentioned.
“It took over three weeks after she was discharged for [her] vomiting to subside.”
Child Harper is now residence from the hospital and is slowly recovering, her mom Whitney Reese mentioned. The little woman is proven her eat left, with a toddler holding water beads proven on proper. (Whitney Reese / iStock)
Moreover, Harper developed “very extreme reflux” that was difficult to manage.
She has additionally developed a worry of strangers and medical personnel, mentioned Reese.
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“It’s taking time for her develop that belief in different individuals,” mentioned the mother.
The opposite members of her household are nonetheless recovering from the ordeal as properly.
“I wished to burn the home down or promote, however my husband advised me, ‘No.’”
“It was a really troublesome time for the entire household together with our different two kids, who needed to deal with Mother and Dad switching backwards and forwards and by no means being residence collectively,” she mentioned.
“We’re therapeutic, and it has been a journey, however we’re getting there.”
Little Harper Reese together with her brothers, Lance (holding Harper) and Hudson. (Whitney Reese)
Earlier than Harper got here residence from the hospital, Reese deep-cleaned her residence.
She mentioned she made positive that there have been no extra water beads left in the home.
“I wished to burn the home down or promote, however my husband advised me, ‘No,’” she joked.
She mentioned she threw away as many issues as she might that she knew had come into contact with water beads — the older youngsters’ sensory desk, cups, buckets and shovels — simply in case any beads had shrunken down and had been hidden from sight.
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Reese mentioned she remembered that her son would usually drive toy automobiles and vehicles via the water beads.
She didn’t see any seen water beads — however simply in case, determined to soak the toys in a single day within the bathtub.
The small dimension of dry water beads makes them exhausting to identify, mentioned mother Whitney Reese. Pictured on left, a dry water bead (on Reese’s fingertip) and above on proper, the 12 water beads that Reese discovered hidden in her youngsters’ toys. (Whitney Reese)
That method, any residual water beads would increase and be simpler to seek out, she defined.
The following morning, she totally washed every toy automobile individually.
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A dozen extra beads had been hidden within the toys — utterly unbeknownst to anybody within the household.