Water beads may look harmless and fun, but the authors of a new report — including a mom whose daughter was seriously injured by them — are calling for a ban on their sale.
When Ashley Haugen’s daughter Kipley was a toddler, she developed a rash and was throwing up. Doctors couldn’t figure out what was wrong. It turned out she had ingested the small, water-absorbing beads her older sister was playing with. The beads can expand to 100 times their size when exposed to water.
“During surgery, they found the water beads had caused a blockage inside of her small intestine,” Haugen told CBS News. “Because the water beads were marketed as non-toxic eco-friendly and biodegradable, everybody thought that she would be fine.”
But in the weeks that followed, Kipley began having trouble with coordination and responding to commands. Doctors confirmed she was experiencing developmental delays, leading to a diagnosis of toxic brain encephalopathy.
Kipley’s case was recently been published in the journal Pediatrics. Haugen is one of the first parent advocates to co-author a case report in the journal. The authors are also calling for warning labels about the risks of ingestion on all products containing water beads.
“Water beads are made of poly acrylamide and acrylamide is a known neurotoxin. Our consumer products and the chemicals used to make them are not well regulated,” Dr. Elizabeth Friedman, of the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Medicine, told CBS News.
Kipley, now 8 years old, isn’t alone. More than 7,800 ingestion injuries were treated in U.S. emergency departments from 2016 to 2022, according to data from the Consumer Product Safety Commission. In 2023, 10-month-old child died after swallowing water beads.
“It breaks my heart, what happened to Kipley. And for me, it’s been very healing to be able to know that that pain has a purpose,” Haugen said.
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Haugen runs an advocacy website called That Water Bead Lady to help families whose children have been injured by consumers products.
Kipley had this message for lawmakers: “Please work together to ban water beads. Lots of kids like me got hurt.”
“Kipley has made a lot of progress. She still has challenges, but she is an amazing little advocate,” her mom added.
