Button batteries – an underestimated hazard in the home for small children

It’s virtually impossible to imagine our everyday lives without button batteries. They are everywhere, including in car keys, remote controls, kitchen scales, cameras, watches, toys and LED tealights. Often, the only time we think about these small coin cells is when a device suddenly stops working: Where is the battery compartment? Which battery does it need – and do we have them at home?

But what if the battery compartment is empty and the button battery is nowhere to be found? Didn’t you just see your child playing with the remote control?

You may have been frustrated with tightly screwed battery compartments in children’s toys or the child-safe packaging for button batteries that take a lot of effort to open. It isn’t that the manufacturers want to annoy us. These safety measures are a direct response to a real accident risk – one that is frequently underestimated in the home.

Important: 

1. A button battery lodged in the oesophagus is a life-threatening medical emergency and must be removed urgently in hospital, ideally within 2 hours of swallowing.
2. If there is any suspicion at all as to whether someone has swallowed a button battery, they must be urgently assessed by a doctor.

Tox Info Suisse recommends

⇒ Prompt and urgent x-ray monitoring to determine the location of the button battery for: 

• All children ≤ 2 years
• Button batteries with a diameter ≥ 20 mm
• All children with symptoms, even if these are very subtle
• Any difficulty in assessing symptoms in a child

⇒ In any uncertainty do not hesitate to contact Tox Info Suisse. Rapid action is vital.

All button batteries in the nose, ear, vagina, anus or under plaster should always be removed urgently.

Note: Honey or sucralfate

Taking measures such as administering honey or sucralfate to prevent burns after swallowing a button battery are not adequately scientifically proven at present and are not recommended by Tox Info Suisse.

Under no circumstances should the emergency removal of a button battery be delayed as a result of administering honey. Rapid removal using an endoscope in hospital is the most important action to take.

The symptoms may be non-specific and subtle. Some children suddenly refuse to eat or drink, retch, produce more saliva or become unusually agitated. Others complain of pain or a feeling of pressure behind the sternum. In some cases it can cause mild respiratory complaints which resemble cold symptoms.

It is particularly difficult to assess this in infants and young children as they cannot articulate their symptoms. Young children also have a narrower oesophagus, which increases the risk of a battery getting stuck – especially for button batteries with a diameter of 20 mm or more.

Modern devices are getting increasingly smaller and yet use more energy. Since the turn of the millennium, lithium button batteries have therefore been used more and more frequently. A study from the US shows that the number of serious burns has significantly increased. This trend is closely linked to the increased use of lithium button batteries.

Larger lithium coin cell batteries with diameters of 20 mm or more such as the widely used CR 2032, CR 2025 and CR 2016 are especially problematic. Their large diameter means they are more likely to get stuck in a young child’s oesophagus and they are now involved in virtually all serious cases.

• The first two digits of the type designation indicate the diameter in millimetres (e.g. 20 mm for CR 2032)
• The final two digits specify the height in tenths of millimetres (e.g. 3.2 mm for CR 2032)
• Lithium button batteries with a diameter of 20 mm or greater represent a particularly high risk for young children

No. Even button batteries that appear to be dead are dangerous. Their energy is too low to operate a remote control, but the residual current is enough to cause serious injury if it comes into contact with a moist mucous membrane. 

Prevention: How to protect children 

Many serious incidents occur because swallowing a button battery goes unnoticed at first. Studies show that a large number of fatal cases and serious complications occur following ingestion that went unseen. This makes it all the more important to focus on everyday awareness and prevention.

Recommended measures:

1. Always keep new and used button batteries out of the reach of children.
2. Check the battery compartments of devices and make these extra secure if necessary (for example by covering with adhesive tape).  
3. Do not replace batteries in the presence of children (imitation!).
4. Dispose of dead batteries as quickly as possible in a child-safe location.
5. Buy button batteries in child-safe packaging where possible.

Addition precautions (not yet conclusively scientifically proven):

• Mask loose button batteries with clear adhesive tape or packaging tap before disposal – tape horizontally and vertically to overlap and completely cover the battery.
• This makes it harder to swallow and less appealing to children. It has also been shown in in-vitro studies that taping can significantly reduce the flow of electricity. 

Several manufacturers use safety measures such as child-safe packaging, visual warnings on the battery or bitter coatings such as Bitrex®. Whether these measures actually reduce the number of accidents still remains to be seen.

Emerging battery-ingestion hazard: clinical implications –  PubMed
Pediatric button battery injuries: 2013 task force update –  PubMed
Button battery ingestion in children –  PubMed
Button battery taping prevents oesophageal injury –  PubMed
Button battery taping and disposal: Risk reduction strategies for the household setting –  PubMed
Diagnosis, Management, and Prevention of Button Battery Ingestion in Childhood: A European Society for Paediatric Gastroenterology Hepatology and Nutrition Position Paper – PubMed

Comic created by the German Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) about button batteries (in German):
was-sagt-die-wissenschaft-der-bfr-wissens-comic-knopfzellen-batterien.pdf

April 2026