Did you just celebrate a holiday?

Maybe you celebrated Christmas, maybe Hannukah.  Maybe relatives or friends came to visit.  Maybe your living room/playroom/ kids' bedrooms looked like there's been some sort of toy store explosion.

Maybe your kids got books that make noises:

Or maybe you've got some singing Christmas cards around (probably by now, you wish they would just stop singing):

Or maybe you used some fancy electronic lights in your menorah:

Or--forget--the kids, maybe this year the grownups got some fun new "toys" to play with:

Maybe now, while holiday detritus is still lingering here, there, and everywhere, is the perfect time to revisit button battery safety.  Because every item pictured above contains a button battery, and like I've said before, these tiny items pack a very dangerous (sometimes deadly) punch.

After my last post on button batteries, I received an email about Energizer's new awareness campaign, The Battery Controlled.  The company is redesigning the packaging for their button batteries to make them more childproof and include improved safety warnings.  Still, the most important thing is for parents to become aware of how dangerous these batteries can be (which is why I keep mentioning them, and encourage you to share this information with any other parents you know). 

One of the links that I was sent was to this very-short-and-amazingly-powerful video.  Check it out.  Share it.   (It's only 2:16 long and beautifully done)





That same email also referred me over to Emmett's Fight.  Emmett was 12 months when he found and swallowed a button battery (it had fallen out of a remote to his family's DVD player, unbeknownest to them).  His family is committed to raising awareness about the dangers of button batteries through their website, and continue to tell his story on their blog.  It's a great resource for those interested in raising awareness, and Emmett's fighting spirit has brought him a long way (per the family's blog, he has had 4 inches of his  esophagus removed, has had multiple cases of collapsed lung, has endured 19 surgeries, has been under general anesthetic 20 times so far and he has had close to 200 X-rays. He has been hospitalized in the Pediatric ICU on and off for a total of 7 months).

Take a look around your home.  Make sure that items with button batteries are only played with under careful supervision.  Share the video, share the information, help spread the word so that all parents of small children realize that button batteries are dangerous.