Button Battery
The Battery Controlled: Search, Secure, Share & Get Help Fast!
This is an interactive video to help medical specialists, parents and caregivers keep children safe from button battery related injuries.
Button Battery Related injuries in NZ
THE NUMBERS
>5
Kids under 6 years old represent the greatest risk.
20
The number of children taken to the Starship each year.
2hrs
It takes as little as 2 hours for a button battery to cause severely burn injury in the oesophagus.
View Button Battery Resources
Click the link above to order or download resources (i.e. posters, flyers, infographics) relating to this injury issue.
Prevention: Search, Secure and Share
Kids under 6 are at the greatest risk. Many coin-sized button batteries can appear “invisible” to parents because devices come with the batteries already installed. To keep your children safe:
- SEARCH your home, and any place your child goes, for gadgets that may contain button batteries.
- SECURE button battery-controlled devices out of sight and reach of children and keep loose batteries locked away.
- SHARE this life-saving information with caregivers, friends, family and whanau.
In an Emergency: Get Help Fast
Keeping these batteries locked away and secured in devices is key, but if a coin-sized button battery is swallowed, you should follow these steps:
- Go to the nearest hospital emergency department immediately. Tell doctors and nurses that it might be a coin-sized button battery. If possible, provide the medical team with the identification number found on the battery’s pack.
- Do not let the child eat or drink until an X-ray can determine if a battery is present.
- Do not induce vomiting.
A Partnership to Raise Awareness and Prevent Injury
The Battery Controlled is a partnership to raise awareness about the risk of coin-sized battery ingestion with parents, caregivers, manufacturers, retailers and the medical community.
Led by Safekids Aotearoa and Energizer, our partners in New Zealand include:
- Trading Standards
- Starship Children's Health
- National Poisons Centre
- Ministry of Health
- NZ Retailers Association
- Victoria University (Wellington)
- Digital Masters
Register here as a partner to receive the latest information about this campaign.