Buzz
For decades, the colorful world of LEGO has brought joy to both kids and adults. But the downside? Stepping on a LEGO brick causes excruciating pain, and emergencies arise when a child swallows a LEGO head after tearing it off.
Ever wondered if a LEGO head could get stuck in someone's intestines? Well, science now has an answer. A recent Gizmodo article reported on a study in the Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health, where six physicians who were also authors of the study swallowed a toy head to study the results. They then sifted through their waste to see when the head would resurface.
On average, it took 1.71 days for the LEGO head to pass through, with five out of six participants having a smooth exit. One participant couldn’t find the head despite carefully searching, but it's possible they missed it. How someone misses a bright orange piece of plastic in their stool remains a mystery.
The authors lightened the mood around their LEGO poop study by referring to the time it takes for the head to reappear as the Find and Retrieval Time, or FART. However, the main point of the experiment was to reassure parents that swallowing a LEGO head is unlikely to cause any issues and should pass naturally within a day or two. In a practical note, the authors also advised that there’s no need to search through your child’s stool to ensure the object has made its way through their system.
That being said, swallowing foreign objects is never a good idea. While many LEGO heads used to have a hollow core to help with breathing if they got stuck in the throat, it’s still important to warn children against eating their toys.
