Fidget spinners are taking over the world with their addictive fun, but one mother has warned of an unexpected danger that come with the toys.
Kelly Rose Joniec posted on Facebook about how she had to rush her daughter to the hospital because of an unfortunate incident with her spinner. Joniec was bringing her daughter, Britton, home from a swim meet on Saturday when she noticed her daughter making a “retching” sound and found out that Britton was choking.
“She said she’d put part of her fidget spinner in her mouth to clean it and somehow swallowed it,” Joniec said in her post.
A fidget spinner has weighted bearings, which can be removed and are about the size of a quarter, to help it spin so smoothly. The toys are supposed to be silent, but the bearings should be cleaned regularly to keep them from making noise. That’s how Joniec said her daughter got a bearing stuck in her throat.
When urgent care couldn’t tell where the bearing was, the mother and daughter were rushed to the Texas Children’s Hospital’s Woodlands location via ambulance. Britton eventually had to have surgery.
“After multiple, very stressful attempts to place an IV, Britton was taken to surgery to endoscopically locate and remove the object,” Joniec wrote. “Fortunately we had a positive outcome, but it was pretty scary there for a while.”
Fidget spinners can help channel the restlessness in children sometimes caused by autism or ADHD, but are so distracting that classrooms across the country are banning the toy.
Joniec’s post has gotten over 500,000 shares and comments as parents thank her for sharing the warning. It’s unclear how old her daughter is, but she mentions that the toys are dangerous for children under 8 years old.
“Kids of all ages may be getting them, but not all spinners come with age-appropriate warnings,” Joniec warned. “The [bearings] pop out easily, so if you have young kids (under 8 years old) keep in mind that these present a potential choking hazard.”
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