Tallmadge mother wants button batteries banned from children's toys after daughter's death

A Tallmadge mother is warning parents of the dangers of button batteries and advocating for a ban on their use in toys after one killed her daughter.

Nahlah Miah Barber, who was 2-and-a-half, died March 19.

Her death was ruled an accident that was caused by swallowing a button battery, specifically hemorrhagic shock due to esophageal erosion due to complications of a presumed swallowed button battery, according to the Summit County Medical Examiner's Office.

“Toys with button batteries should not be bought, period,” said Nahlah’s mother, Sumiah Hamdan, 22. “Instantly, in a split second, something like this could happen…In the split second that I took my eyes off of her, it was swallowed, and in a split second, she went from happy, playing, no symptoms at all to spitting up blood because she's bleeding internally in 50 different places.”

What happened to Nahlah Barber?

Nahlah was a happy toddler who loved Princess Tiana from “The Princess and the Frog,” as well as the movies “Encanto,” “Rio” and “Moana.” She loved to dance and play with her little sister, Aylah, who turns 5 months old this month, as well as getting into her little sister’s stuff, as sisters do.

Nahlah also loved to mimic what her mom was doing, like helping bring in groceries, cleaning or wiping with a sponge.

The morning of her death, the family woke up and saw Nahlah had defecated on herself.

“I guess that should have been the sign [of] something because Nahlah was in the middle of potty training, but she was doing good,” Hamdan said.

They put her in the tub to get cleaned up — she was fussy and wanted to get out of the tub to eat because she was hungry — then started another typical day: eating breakfast and watching movies, including “Rio."

Her father went to sleep, and her mother got ready to go to the store. She planned to put Nahlah down for a nap, and Nahlah was sitting on the floor and pouting — typical behavior for the toddler when she didn't want to take a nap.

Suddenly, Hamdan said Nahlah spit up “a pile of blood.” The toddler’s father, Danwell Barber, rushed her to an urgent care facility, where staff said she had to go to the hospital. Tallmadge EMS took her to Akron Children’s.

Hospital staff stabilized her and were working to move her to the pediatric intensive care unit, but she started to decline, her mother said.

“They couldn't get her stable, and she was just bleeding out from everywhere, and they couldn't find out where she was bleeding from,” Hamdan said. “So then they just said like, regardless if we keep trying, she's gonna be brain dead…We're doing more harm to her at this point because it's still not like it's not gonna fix it. She's gonna be brain dead, regardless of what they could do.”

Nahlah Barber: Tallmadge 2-year-old died from swallowing button battery

What is a button battery?

The devastated family had no idea what had happened and didn’t learn Nahlah’s cause of death until after the autopsy. They didn’t even know she’d swallowed a battery. Medical staff made an educated guess that the battery caused her death based on the damage in her body, as the battery wasn’t in her system, and she hadn’t thrown it up.

“We didn't even know it happened because we don't even leave stuff around for her to get into, like we don't even leave out cleaning products. They're all kept away from her,” Hamdan said.

Hamdan said she checked the bathtub drain and found the battery, which had washed down when they were cleaning her up after her accident. She had defecated it out, and even though it passed through her system, it was already too late, with the battery leaving a trail of devastation in the toddler’s body.

Button batteries, also called lithium coin batteries, are small, disc-shaped cells about the size of a nickel. They’re used in a variety of household items but are also used in children’s toys. If swallowed, a lithium coin battery can get lodged in a child’s esophagus and cause serious harm in as little as two hours.

According to the Battery Ingestion Hotline — which is free, confidential and available 24/7/365 at 1-800-498-8666 — every year in the United States, more than 3,500 people of all ages swallow button batteries. The hotline said that a battery stuck in the esophagus can cause a tissue burn, with an electrical current forming around the outside of the battery generating hydroxide, an alkaline chemical.

“I know they're in household items…but those nine times out of 10, parents already have those pulled out the way,” Hamdan said. “I didn't even know that kind of battery was in there [in her toy]. And after looking at it, it's literally the biggest freak accident.”

The battery came from a Cocomelon toy that Nahlah had chewed on and punctured. Hamdan had no idea there was a button battery in the toy; she only thought to check after seeing a similar toy on TikTok. She found the toy’s button battery was missing.

“It has a little slot for the button battery, and the puncture that she did was nowhere near it, so it was like the button battery just literally got up out of its little spot that it's supposed to be secured in and just traveled its way through,” she said. “It wasn't even secured or protected or anything.”

Nahlah passed the battery sometime around 9 a.m. on the day of her death, but her only symptom — spitting up blood — didn’t happened until almost 2:30 p.m. that day.

“It burned through her esophagus and everything and it went through to her heart at that point,” Hamdan said. “But it was like even after it came out, the damage was already done…She that whole time was playing, laughing, smiling, no symptoms whatsoever.”

Mother wants button batteries banned from children's toys

Hamdan knew nothing about button batteries before her daughter’s death, but she was shocked to learn of multiple similar cases through research she did after Nahlah died.

“They're beyond dangerous, and these companies don't need to put them in there. The toys are marketed at two years old, three years old, four years old," Hamdan said. "Those [batteries] are deadly to a grown up such as myself. They definitely shouldn't be put in kids’ toys when they're way more damaging to them, and when they're so easily accessible.”

If your child swallows a battery, go to an emergency room immediately or call 911. You can also give your child honey to eat after swallowing a button battery, as researchers have found it has the potential to reduce serious injuries in small children, according to the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

But Hamdan said honey only helps if you know your child has swallowed a battery, which her family didn’t.

The mother — who is currently living elsewhere and hasn’t stayed in the family's apartment since Nahlah’s death — has contacted local politicians to try to advocate for stopping the use of button batteries in children’s toys. A petition on change.org, "Ban button batteries in children's toys for Nahlah!!" has 147 signatures as of Friday afternoon.

“They shouldn't be used at all,” Hamdan said. “It shouldn't be that much about money to companies that they insist on selling those specific products that have these, if that's the only way to operate them is these batteries.”

Contact Beacon Journal reporter Emily Mills at emills@thebeaconjournal.com and on Twitter @EmilyMills818

This article originally appeared on Akron Beacon Journal: Tallmadge mom wants ban on button batteries in toys after daughter dies