Why Doctors Purposely Swallowed LEGO Pieces
Australian doctors conducted an experiment that involved swallowing Lego pieces to determine how long it would take to pass through the human body and if there were any complications associated with swallowing the pieces to better understand the effects of a child swallowing them.
Anyone with young children knows that preventing them from swallowing random objects is often a futile task. This leaves one to wonder how long it would take for these items to pass through the human body. To answer that question, six pediatricians swallowed a Lego head and waited for these pieces to pass through their gastrointestinal systems.
The experiment was led by Australian-based emergency physician, Doctor Andy Tagg who swallowed two Lego blocks as a toddler. Along with his colleagues, he constantly has to reassure panicked parents whose youngsters have ingested small toys. For the experiment, each physician downed a Lego head and timed how long it took them to be excreted.
Each doctor gave their Lego object a Found and Retrieved Time score, the average of which was 1.71 days. The results were published in the Journal of Pediatrics and Public Health which went viral. None of them experienced serious gastrointestinal pain or problems, NPR reports. Next, they proceeded to collect and examine their stool for signs of the swallowed plastic pieces.
Of the six doctors, five located the Lego heads within days. The sixth never did. But that may be due to his lack of diligence. “It turns out my colleagues did a proper, like, break open the poo and see if it was there,” he said via Yahoo! News. “I kind of looked at it. But I certainly wasn’t going to search to see if it was inside,” he added.
Although Tagg and his fellow researchers made a strong argument for the relative safety of swallowing Legos, they also warned parents about potentially dangerous hazards. “We know that the number one ingested foreign object in children is coins,” he said via BestLife. Kids put them in their mouths just to see what happens. Plastic toys are the second most ingested item.
The novel study determined that a predefined Lego object passed through adult subjects in one to three days with no complications. While childhood bowel transit time may be fundamentally different from an adult, there is little evidence to support this. If anything, it is likely that objects would pass faster in a younger body.
The Lego head results will be useful to anxious parents who may worry that transit times could be prolonged and potentially painful for their children. The study has also provided some interesting insights for further research, as females were more likely to retrieve the foreign body earlier compared to their male counterparts.
Sadly, this study was not able to confirm whether this is a true difference. Moreover, if an experienced clinician with a Ph.D. is unable to adequately find Lego objects in their own stool, it seems clear that we parents should not be expected to do so. Still, the authors feel that national guidance could include this advice. Unfortunately, the doctors didn’t realize their goal of being published in the Christmas BMJ. “The BMJ said no outright. They don’t allow self-experimentation,” pediatric emergency specialist Doctor Tessa Davis, said about the Lego study.
