NY POST – Dr. Meghan Martin, a pediatric emergency medicine doctor with four kids of her own, is calling out the top five “weird summer things” she doesn’t like.
Metal wire grill brushes
Wire grill brushes are far from harmless — and actually send 130 to the ER each year.
Dr. Martin is urging people to stop using them, since those wire bristles can break off into your food, ultimately ending up inside your body, causing injury.
The worst possible consequence of accidentally swallowing a wire bristle is developing an serious infection or perforation of the intestine, which can lead to death.
She’s seen them lodged in the back of the tongue and the tonsils — but they’re often harder for doctors to pinpoint.
“It can be very difficult to find embedded wire bristles,” Farmer said. “It’s literally like swallowing and trying to find a needle in a haystack.”
Trampolines
Dr. Martin is hardly the first doctor to warn parents against trampolines.
[Editor’s note: we’ve posted often about trampolines, which injure hundreds of children every year. There is no safe way to use a trampoline. – HEADLINE HEALTH]
“We see so many broken bones, especially legs, on trampolines,” she said, noting that docs have even named certain injuries “trampoline fractures.”
The risk isn’t only about falling off — though there have been horror stories of children dying that way. Building your trampoline into the ground isn’t enough, she said — lots of kids get hurt on the trampoline itself.
Mosquito bites
Yes, but bites are annoying — but mosquitos can also carrying viruses like West Nile and Eastern Equine Encephalitis.
Start with a mosquito repellant and be on the lookout for troubling symptoms …
