Q: Doctor Zhang, my child just ten I have been crawling all over the ground for six months. Today, the child climbed under the bed, found the empty shoe box, bit the bag of desiccant inside, and ate the desiccant containing small particles into his mouth. I went to the hospital at once. The doctor said that this desiccant was made of silica gel. Don't worry about it. It has no effect on the child and can be discharged through stool. Is that right?
Answer: Generally, there are three common desiccants in our lives: quicklime (calcium oxide), silica gel, calcium chloride and ferric oxide. Because the drying agent cost of quicklime is low, the moisture absorption rate is as high as 30%. This kind of desiccant is mostly used in food; For daily use products, silica gel is often used as the raw material of desiccant, which is what you call desiccant in shoe boxes or clothes; Quick lime or silica gel is the most common desiccant for infants.
Quicklime is highly corrosive. Because it generates strong alkali (hydrated lime) and releases heat when encountering water, it is easy to burn and corrode children's mouth and digestive tract, and also easy to cause burns to conjunctiva and cornea when splashed into eyes. Therefore, don't be alarmed when encountering this situation, immediately take orally clean water (10 ml/kg body weight, the total amount does not exceed 200 ml) to dilute the lye, and then take orally milk, raw egg white water, olive oil or other vegetable oils to protect the injured surface and prevent corrosion from deepening. For eye burns, it is necessary to wash the eyes with clean water repeatedly, dilute the lye as much as possible, go to the hospital immediately after the above treatment, and ask the doctor for further treatment.
Silica gel is generally transparent, but some of them add a small amount of cobalt dichloride to make it blue, which turns red from blue when combined with water to mark whether it has lost the ability to absorb water. Silica gel generally has no toxicity, will not be absorbed by the digestive tract, and will be discharged with stool. No special treatment is required.
The desiccant of calcium chloride is mainly used in large places, and children will not touch it. If it is taken by mistake, it will not be irritating. Just drink water to dilute it.
However, under unknown circumstances, we should go to the hospital in time to ask a doctor for treatment.
The coffee colored ferric oxide is slightly irritating. If you take it by mistake, just drink water to dilute it. If you take it in large quantities, it can cause gastrointestinal symptoms: nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain and diarrhea. You must go to the hospital.
However, parents should also be reminded here to pay attention to accidental injuries to infants. Because children at this stage prefer to explore the outside world through their own limbs and mouth with the development of their own motor function and the expansion of their range of activities, but due to the limited cognitive level, they are prone to accidents. During this period, parents should take good care of your children. When children are unreasonable, keep some objects that are easy to damage children away from them; When children can distinguish some things, they should tell them what can't be eaten or moved, so as to prevent the trouble before it happens. Article/ Zhang Silai
This article is excerpted from the health volume of Zhang Silai's micro interview on child rearing
