Babies and young children need to be closely supervised when wearing hearing aids due to the risk of choking on or swallowing small hearing aid parts, including earmoulds.

Button batteries can cause serious harm and death in as little as two hours if swallowed and can cause serious injuries if they become lodged in the nose or ear. If you suspect your child or relative has swallowed a button battery (even if the battery is thought to be ‘dead’ or ‘flat’), take them straight to your nearest emergency department or dial 999 for an ambulance. 

When not in use, hearing aids, earmoulds and batteries should be kept out of reach of young children and anyone who might swallow these items or otherwise cause injury to themselves.

Tamper-proof battery drawers

If your child is very young, or has young siblings, their hearing aid may be fitted with a tamper-proof battery drawer, which cannot be opened unless a special tool is used. It is important to remember:

The tamper proof battery drawer must only be opened with the correct tool provided by the audiologist and not by anything else.

How to open/close a battery drawer

It is essential that you only use the Oticon green TAR tool, at the correct point on the battery drawer. If the TAR door has been opened once through misuse (e.g. by using an adult fingernail) the TAR door lock is damaged and must be replaced.

1. Hold the hearing aid upside down facing you and fully Insert the pin of green tool into the hole on the battery drawer.

2. Push the tool up to open the battery drawer.

The tamper proof battery drawer should be checked to be working each time the hearing aid is placed on your child.

What to do if someone swallows a battery

If you / your relative has swallowed a button battery (even if the battery is thought to be ‘dead’ or ‘flat’):

  • attend your nearest Emergency Department or dial 999 for an ambulance
  • tell the hospital staff there that you think you / your relative has swallowed a button battery
  • let the hospital staff know what type of battery has been swallowed and how long ago
  • take a similar battery and the packaging with you. This will help the doctor identify the type of battery swallowed and make treatment easier
  • do not eat or drink / let your relative eat or drink
  • do not make yourself sick / do not make your relative sick
  • trust your instincts and act fast – do not wait to see if any symptoms develop.

Symptoms may not be obvious therefore it is important to be vigilant.

Batteries and vulnerable children and adults

You can ask your audiologist to fit a childproof battery lock to the hearing aids if you are concerned.

Storing your hearing aid batteries safely

  1. keep new/spare batteries in their original blister packaging in a sealed container and out of the sight and reach of the client and other vulnerable adults
  2. when opening the battery package take care to ensure they do not fall on the floor
  3. place ‘flat’ or ‘dead’ batteries out of client’s reach straight away. It is good practice to keep used batteries in the original packing to help ensure no old batteries have gone missing
  4. recycle batteries safely and as quickly as possible. Many local councils have recycling schemes for batteries including household collection. Alternatively, many large stores have recycling schemes, or used batteries can be returned to the audiology service
  5. batteries should not touch each other when being stored; if they still have power they can become hot if they touch, resulting in a fire risk
  6. batteries have occasionally been mistaken for pills. Therefore patients should check their medicine carefully before swallowing any pills, and batteries should be kept in a different place from medicines.