Swallowed AirPod sends 7-year-old to emergency room

A second-grader has landed himself in the emergency room after accidentally swallowing a Christmas gift — an AirPod.

A Georgia mother reports that her son had accidentally swallowed one of his AirPods, prompting her to rush him to the emergency room. The seven-year-old had received the AirPods as a Christmas gift along with a new iPhone.

"He said he was holding it in his mouth by the long end," Kiara Stroud, the boy's mother, told Atlanta's WSB-TV Channel 2 News.

The X-ray shows that the AirPod is clearly still in his stomach, sitting just below his rib cage. Stroud couldn't believe that her son had swallowed the wireless earbud.

"First of all, he was very nervous. He thought he was going to be in trouble," Stroud told reporters. "We just kinda assured him that it's okay."

The doctor at Children's Healthcare of Atlanta at Egelston didn't know what an AirPod was, and was said it was a unique case. Despite the lack of knowledge about the product, doctors went on to assure both Stroud and her son that the AirPod would pass on its own and that he would be fine.

The son raised concerns about the AirPod connecting to his iPhone if he were to get too close.

"He was like, Mom. I don't want my phone,' because he got a phone for Christmas as well, and he's like, I don't want to be near my phone. I don't want it to connect to my phone and start playing music,'" Stroud said.

Stroud hopes that other parents will be cautious when giving AirPods to their kids, as she never anticipated her son would swallow the AirPod.

57 Comments

sflocal 6133 comments · 16 Years

About 4 years ago

AppleInsider said:

Stroud hopes that other parents will be cautious when giving AirPods to their kids, as she never anticipated her son would swallow the AirPod.

Absolutely worst case of entitled parenting. What the heck are parents doing by giving 7-year-olds such expensive, elaborate gifts? I tell you... kids nowadays (and their parents) are what's wrong with society.

When I was seven, I was happy just playing outside in the dirt.

hexclock 1310 comments · 10 Years

sflocal said:

AppleInsider said:

Stroud hopes that other parents will be cautious when giving AirPods to their kids, as she never anticipated her son would swallow the AirPod.

Absolutely worst case of entitled parenting. What the heck are parents doing by giving 7-year-olds such expensive, elaborate gifts? I tell you... kids nowadays (and their parents) are what's wrong with society.
When I was seven, I was happy just playing outside in the dirt.

First Tide Pods, now Air Pods.

mknelson 1146 comments · 9 Years

sflocal said:
Absolutely worst case of entitled parenting. What the heck are parents doing by giving 7-year-olds such expensive, elaborate gifts? I tell you... kids nowadays (and their parents) are what's wrong with society.

When I was seven, I was happy just playing outside in the dirt.

Ironically, his peers would probably tease and shun him if he didn't have Airpods (well, maybe he's a bit young for that - more of a jr. high thing), and you're judging him for having them.

Absolutely worst case of entitled parenting? Literally, no. :D

I love how his main worry is they'll pair with his phone and start playing music.

lkrupp 10521 comments · 19 Years

sflocal said:

AppleInsider said:

Stroud hopes that other parents will be cautious when giving AirPods to their kids, as she never anticipated her son would swallow the AirPod.

Absolutely worst case of entitled parenting. What the heck are parents doing by giving 7-year-olds such expensive, elaborate gifts? I tell you... kids nowadays (and their parents) are what's wrong with society.
When I was seven, I was happy just playing outside in the dirt.

Mom is probably being deluged with phone calls from personal injury lawyers as we speak. This is Apple and the prospect of a big payout is too hard to resist. Fucking Apple makes dangerous products don’t you know. AirPods need warning labels to tell kids not to swallow them. /s

As for playing in the dirt I saw a poster on Facebook that read, “We didn’t have an X-Box when were kids. We just had a box”. The poster’s picture showed three kids playing inside a cardboard refrigerator shipping container. I remember those days.

DAalseth 3033 comments · 6 Years

Seven year olds regularly lose their coat, backpack or lunch bag. WTF are they doing giving him Airpods that ADULTS regularly lose. He wants to listen to music, there are a lot of Cheap wired earbuds. Even if you want bluetooth, give him a pair of cheap Knockoff beats that have a line connecting them. Don’t worry about sound quality, at that age they can’t tell good from bad.