Button battery safety

Button batteries can badly hurt or kill a small child if they swallow one. They look like a coin.

Learn more about the risks.

Five top tips

Look

Look around your home for button batteries. Think toys, lights, remote controls and more.

Check

Check for products with loose backs and button batteries that have dropped out.

Store

Store button batteries in a safe place, up high and out of your child’s reach.

Dispose

Dispose of used button batteries as soon as you can. They are still unsafe. Learn why.

Act

If you think your child may have swallowed a button battery, go straight to A&E or call an ambulance.

Harper-Lee’s Legacy

This should have been Harper-Lee’s first year at school. But the last time her mum saw her she was being wheeled into theatre. Surgeons were unable to save her.

Unknown to her mum, Harper-Lee had swallowed a button battery from a remote control. Within hours it burnt through her food pipe to her main artery and she haemorrhaged to death. She was two years-old.

Learn more

What you need to know …

The risks

Discover why button batteries are dangerous, who is most at risk and if the size of a battery matters.

Where are they?

Many people are shocked to discover how many products contain button batteries. Take a look.

Used batteries

Why are used batteries still unsafe? And what should you do with them?

In an emergency

Should you give a child water? Or honey? Learn exactly what to do if a child swallows a button battery.

What you can do…

Run a session

Use our ready-made resources to run a session and help parents recognise the dangers of button batteries and make their homes safer.

Free printed resources

Thanks to generous support from the Office for Product Safety and Standards, you can order free printed resources to share with the families you work with.

Get your free downloads

Help us spread the word about the dangers of button batteries by downloading and sharing our free educational resources.

Sign up for updates

Subscribe to our free child safety emails to stay up-to-date with the latest safety alerts, top tips and free downloadable resources.

Free resources

Flyer and poster

Our hard-hitting flyer, available in English and Welsh, explains the risks and offers safety tips and emergency advice. Our colourful poster prompts parents to hunt for button batteries in their homes.

Session plan

Our dual-purpose flashcard and session plan is designed to help you run an engaging workshop with parents. With a visual aid, workshop outline and safety facts and tips to share.

New English fact sheet

Our fact sheet provides essential advice about the risks to children, where to look for button batteries and what to do in an emergency. Download and share.

Button battery fact sheets – 17 community languages

Our A4 fact sheet translated into 17 community languages: Albanian; Amharic; Arabic; Bengali; Bulgarian; Cantonese; Dari; Mandarin; Pashto; Polish; Punjabi; Romanian; Somali; Tigrinya; Turkish; Ukrainian, Urdu.

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