Sh*t a brick, literally!
A team of paediatricians took it upon themselves to swallow Lego and time how long it took to pass through their bowels.
The doctors from the UK and Australia teamed up to determine what effect, if any, a piece of Lego would have on their bodies.
Children swallowing foreign objects is extremely common and it's one of the most frequent presentations paediatricians see in emergency departments.
In fact, toy parts are the second most common foreign object that kids swallow.
Parents worry that the object will get stuck or cause problems, and often ask paediatricians if they should keep an eye on their child's bowel movements.
The six doctors involved in the research, which was published in the Journal of Paediatrics and Child Health, all ingested the head of a Lego figure – roughly 10mm by 10mm.
As they then had to poke through their poo over the next few days, they decided to have a bit of craic by developing their own hilarious metrics.
They used the Stool Hardness and Transit (Shat) score and the Found and Retrieved Time (Fart) score to monitor their bowel movements.
Questions: if six paediatric doctors ingest a lego head, how many of them will find it again?
Yup, we did it. All in the name of science (and @DFTBubbles).
Read our paper here: https://t.co/tZ4b9Yo8Kf pic.twitter.com/GDlOu4hodv
— Tessa Davis (@TessaRDavis) November 23, 2018
The researchers said the findings of their study should reassure concerned parents.
The average time to pass the toy was 1.71 days and no pain or complications were noted.
The doctors concluded that small, smooth plastic objects have no effect on the digestive tract.
However, they advised parents to seek medical advice if children swallow magnets, coins, button, batteries, or if the objects are sharp, longer than 5cm, wider than 2.5cm, or if they're experiencing pain.
Dave spoke to one of the doctors involved, Tessa Davis, a consultant in Paediatric Emergency Medicine at Royal London Hospital, to find out more about the unusual study.
