Six people swallowed LEGOs and explored their own poo for science

This is good news for concerned parents whose young children have ingested a LEGO toy (or two). A new study by pediatric researchers concludes that the toy should reappear in their poop in a few days. They know this because their test subjects voluntarily swallowed LEGO figurine heads and watched for the time needed to retrieve them.

Yes, it's a scientific article published in the reputable newspaper. Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health with the title "Everything is great: do not forget LEGO". It belongs to the same group of pediatricians as the famous blog Don & # 39; t Forget the Bubbles. "We finally answered the burning question: how long does it take for a LEGO ingested head to pass?" Co-founder of the DFTB and co-author of the article Tessa Davis tweeted. "It's a dedication to pediatrics, but it was worthwhile to advance pediatric science and emergency care."

We are joking, but that really answers a valid concern. As Bruce Y. Lee, a professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, pointed out at Forbes, little kids like to swallow things, especially coins. Previous studies have examined the passage of parts through the digestive tract, including a 1971 document that revealed that most parts were innocently passed within three to six days.

But no one had looked closely at the second most commonly swallowed item – toy pieces. And the LEGO figureheads are especially tempting for the gastronomically curious toddler.

How would you even find six adults (three men and three women) willing to swallow LEGO pieces? Davis et al. recruited their subjects to the online community of pediatric hospital professionals. They eliminated anyone who has ever had gastrointestinal surgery, problems swallowing objects, or "aversion to research in faeces."

Each subject held a "diary on the stool" registering his stool before and after swallowing the LEGO heads. They assessed the frequency and laxity of their stools based on the SHAT (hardness and stool transit) score of the research team. (Who said pediatricians did not have a sense of humor?) After swallowing the toy, they spent the next three days sifting their own poo to determine when LEGO's head reappear. The number of days that it took to get by and get it back was dubbed the Time Score Found and Recovered (FART).

A poor grass has never recovered the head of LEGO.

Five of the six subjects had FART scores ranging from 1.14 days to 3.04 days, for an average of 1.71 days (approximately 41 hours). And a poor grass has never recovered the head of LEGO. we know now co-author and pediatric consultant, Damien Roland, who told the CBC he kept looking in his own poop for two weeks, hoping that the toy part would reappear, to no avail. Maybe a little more fiber in the diet would help?

As Lee points out, this is a small study focused on adults rather than toddlers. SHAT and FART scores may vary more widely in the general population. It was also not a blind study, because the authors felt that it would be too much to ask the partners or colleagues of the study participants to pass. sift the poop in their name. And other small pieces of toy of various shapes can take more or less time to cross the body.

"A toy object quickly passes into uncomplicated adult subjects," conclude the authors, adding an important warning: "It is recommended that parents not look for the object in the stool because it is difficult to find . " But also maybe we do not swallow those LEGO figurine heads in the first place, m? Kay?

DO I: Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health, 2018. 10.1111 / jpc.14309 (About DOIs).