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Related Experiment Videos

Everything is awesome: Don't forget the Lego.

Andrew Tagg1,2, Damian Roland3,4, Grace Sy Leo5,6

  • 1Western Hospital Footscray, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health
|December 20, 2018
PubMed
Summary

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A Lego figurine head typically passes through the adult digestive system in about 1.7 days. This study suggests parents do not need to search children's stools for retrieved toy objects.

Area of Science:

  • Pediatric Health
  • Gastroenterology
  • Toy Safety

Background:

  • Children frequently swallow coins with few complications, but data on other ingested items are limited.
  • Parental anxiety regarding foreign object ingestion is common across various materials.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To determine the transit time of a commonly swallowed toy: a Lego figurine head.
  • To provide data to alleviate parental concerns about the ingestion of small plastic toys.

Main Methods:

  • Six pediatric health professionals ingested a Lego figurine head.
  • Standardized bowel habit using the Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score.
  • Recorded time to retrieval from stool (Found and Retrieved Time - FART score).

Main Results:

Related Experiment Videos

  • The average Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score was 1.71 days.
  • Preliminary observation suggested females might be more efficient at stool searching, though not statistically significant.

Conclusions:

  • Toy objects like Lego heads pass through the adult gastrointestinal tract without complications.
  • Reassures parents that such objects are likely to pass naturally.
  • Advocates against parents needing to manually search children's stools for evidence of toy retrieval.