Children who have swallowed a button battery should be given regular doses of honey before they get to hospital to reduce tissue damage, Canadian doctors say.

Warning that tissue damage can occur within two hours of ingestion, they recommend caregivers provide 10mL of honey every 10 minutes to reduce the risk of damage.

Toronto paediatricians Dr Amy Zipursky and Professor Savithiri Ratnapalan wrote that injuries from battery ingestion have increased by almost 70% in the last two decades in the US, and complications have increased ten-fold.

In CMAJ (the Canadian Medical Association Journal) they highlighted a number of key points for managing button battery ingestion including: