Son Asks Mom To Call The Doctors After He Swallowed A Lego But She Recorded Him Instead
Needless to say, her comment section got pretty heated.
TikTok Kids are the biggest danger to themselves during playtime, which is why it’s important for parents to keep an eye on them while they’re playing — and honestly, you should just be watching your kids in general.
With that being said, when your child does something like, I don’t know, swallow a Lego? You should probably be picking up the phone to call a doctor, not recording a video of his heartbreaking reaction.
This mom was criticized for recording her child’s reaction to swallowing a Lego.
The video posted by “@colleethaspears1,” lasts just under a minute long and has already received over 2 million views as people tuned in to see Colleetha’s son’s fearful reaction to accidentally swallowing a Lego while he was playing.
Immediately, Colleetha asks her son “How did you swallow it?” as he looks up at her with tears running down his face and fear in his eyes. “Call the doctors! Please! Call the doctors!” he yells back, probably oblivious to the fact that she’s recording.
Thankfully, doctors from the Children’s Hospital of Colorado can assure parents that a majority of kids that swallow small, foreign objects, will end up fine. “Our hospital removes about 140 to 160 foreign objects every year,” says Dr. Robert Kramer, a pediatric gastroenterologist. “We also field a lot of phone calls about foreign bodies that we can manage with guidance and observation.”
According to him, most of these foreign objects will “pass” without incident, so there’s no need for concern unless your kid is golfing down batteries or magnets. Even though this wasn’t the case for this mom, her reaction rubbed a lot of people the wrong way.
“Are you choking?” Colleetha asks, prompting a yes from the very clearly not choking child in front of her. But she continues to ask him, almost goading him and teasing him in order to… keep his fear going? There’s no other answer that makes sense.
She does eventually ask for an explanation of what happened, but by that point, the damage is done. The boy is very clearly terrified.
People told her that she should have taken his concern seriously.
“[Trying to] make him keep [explaining] while it’s in there is crazy,” one woman replied in the comments. “GIRL IF YOU DON'T CALL THAT DOCTOR,” responded another. “Poor little fellow. He just needed some reassurance that he will be okay,” wrote a third.
BetterHealth, an informational website from Australia’s Department of Health, suggests that parents should not react in this same way. “Making fun of the child or forcing them to confront their fear will only make things worse,” they write.
Instead, parents should take their fears and concerns seriously, talking about their feelings and helping to assuage them. Even if you don’t think the situation is that serious, your child is in fear, so you should help them.
That being said, there are situations where the foreign object could cause damage on the way down, so you should monitor your child's condition and call the doctor if needed. Thankfully, doctors from Australia, via ScaryMommy, tested just how long it would take for Lego pieces to pass through — by eating Legos.
The average FART score, which stands for Found and Retrieved Time, was 1.71 days, so you should expect your child’s Lego piece to come out on the other side within the next two business days.
Thankfully, Colleetha provided an update, saying that her boy was in the clear, but hopefully, the criticism she received would inform her reaction to be better in the future.
Isaac Serna-Diez is an Assistant Editor who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics.