Water beads can cause serious harm to kids by expanding inside their bodies. Should they be banned?

Water beads can cause serious harm to kids by expanding inside their bodies. Should they be banned?

Water Beads: A Hidden Hazard for Children

Ashley Haugen’s 13-month-old daughter, Kipley, woke up projectile vomiting in their Texas home one morning in July 2017. The Haugens took her to the doctor after it became apparent she wasn’t keeping anything down. After not responding to medication, Kipley was whisked to a nearby children’s hospital for emergency surgery.

“I remember [the surgeon] showing us the picture of the material that he pulled out of Kipley’s small intestine,” Haugen recalls. “He was like, ‘I found this inside her small intestine, do you know what this is?’ And we recognized it immediately as the birthday gift that we had gotten for Abigail,” their 6-year-old daughter.

The obstruction was a water bead — a tiny, super-absorbent pellet of gel that expands into a soft, slippery, squishy ball when soaked in water.

Water beads are sold as toys and “sensory aids” for children, but regulators and consumer advocates are putting out an alert that the beads pose a health hazard to children.

The Dark Side of Water Beads

Kids can easily ingest the beads, which can cause choking or intestinal blockage as they absorb water from the body. Some kids have inserted the beads into their noses or ears, suffering damage as the gel expands, experts said. In some cases, beads have even wound up in children’s lungs.

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Some of the colorful beads start as tiny as a candy sprinkle and then grow to the size of a marble. Others start the size of a small grape and wind up the size of a golf ball.

“When you receive them, they’re about the size of a pinhead. There can be 10,000 in the container that you get, and then when they’re soaked in fluid, they expand,” said Nancy Cowles, executive director of Kids In Danger, a nonprofit advocacy group for children’s product safety.

The Grim Reality: Injuries and Deaths

About 52,000 Chuckle & Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits were recalled from Target stores earlier this month, after a 10-month-old Wisconsin toddler died in July from swallowing the beads. A 9-month-old in Maine also had been seriously injured last November when the same beads caused an intestinal obstruction that required surgery.

At the time of the recall, the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) noted that an estimated 7,800 water bead injuries had been treated in emergency departments in the United States between 2016 and 2022.

Consumer Reports has launched a petition demanding that the CPSC stop the sale of water beads for kids, following an investigation that revealed thousands of injuries caused by the toys.

The Hidden Dangers

“We strongly recommend that you not buy them if there are children or cognitively impaired adults in the home at any time,” said William Wallace, associate director of safety policy at Consumer Reports. “It’s simply not worth the risk. Water beads don’t serve a useful purpose, and there are much safer options for sensory play.” These include rice, beans, pasta, or peas, experts say.

The problem is that the tiny gel balls often scatter like glitter once the package is opened. The dry beads slip between floorboards, become entangled in the carpet, or get stuck to the plush of a stuffed animal. Parents say they keep finding them in their house for months. “They’re very hard to keep track of and very hard to contain,” Wallace said.

The Origin and Marketing of Water Beads

Water beads were developed in the 1950s and 1960s for agricultural use, to help store water for plants and crops. The beads would soak up water from rain and irrigation, and then slowly release it into the soil. The water beads soon were adopted by flower shops as a means of keeping household plants hydrated. Companies also began experimenting with the absorbent gel in consumer goods like diapers and feminine products.

Water beads became a fad for kids thanks to a toy executive named Ron Brawer, who saw the beads in a florist’s stall in London more than a decade ago, according to Consumer Reports. “He first noticed them being used for flowers and houseplants, and he saw his little kids playing with them and they were mesmerized,” Wallace said. “And he more or less said, you know, these could make a good toy.”

Thus came Orbeez, the first water bead toy, which hit the market in 2010.

However, concerns regarding the safety of water beads were raised early on. Brawer claimed that he asked a lab to analyze what would happen if the beads were ingested and was told that they would safely pass through the body without causing any harm. Despite this assurance, water beads made an initial splash, faded in popularity, and then rebounded in 2017 when they were marketed as sensory products for toddlers.

The Need for Action and Awareness

Haugen and other concerned parents are fighting for stricter regulations and better awareness of the potential dangers of water beads. Beyond the choking hazard, there may also be toxic chemicals present in some of the beads, raising further concerns.

Parents and caregivers need to be vigilant and ensure the safety of children by removing water beads from their environment. Child care centers, camps, and schools are being urged to avoid using water beads entirely. The recall of Chuckle & Roar Ultimate Water Beads Activity Kits is a step in the right direction, but more needs to be done to protect children.

Widespread awareness, stricter safety standards, and the development of alternative sensory play options are essential to prevent further injuries or tragedies caused by water beads.