West Sussex Trading Standards and the Child Accident Prevention Trust, is advising parents across the county to be careful when buying toys online which contain button cell batteries.

The warning comes after Trading Standards bought a number of cheap toys and novelty products from popular internet sites which failed external laboratory testing due to the ease of access to the button cell batteries.

Three items were submitted for testing, these included a Happy Birthday light up crown and a child’s torch. All three failed safety assessments.

Katrina Phillips, Chief Executive of the Child Accident Prevention Trust said: “Button batteries cause corrosive burns inside the body if they’re swallowed and get stuck. Young children have died or been left with life-changing injuries. While battery compartments in toys should be secure, it’s still far too easy to buy dangerous products online. Please check what you’ve bought. And, if you think your little one has swallowed a battery, act fast and get them straight to hospital.”

CAPT provide some top tips on their website for keeping children safe from these types of batteries, including:

• Look round your home for lithium coin cell batteries – in products as well as spare and ‘flat’ batteries.
• Store spare button batteries in a sealed container in a high cupboard.
• Remember that ‘flat’ or ‘dead’ batteries still hold enough power to badly hurt a child. So put them out of children’s reach straight away and recycle them safely and as quickly as possible.
• If you think your child has swallowed a button battery, don’t delay, take them to A&E straight away or call 999 for an ambulance. Don’t let them eat or drink and don’t make them sick.