Reports Suggest Summer's Hottest Toy Could Pose Choking Hazard
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- Fidget spinners are one of this summer's hottest toys -- but now there are reports of children choking on pieces of the popular plaything.
"You don't think that would ever happen," father Shane Holtsclaw tells CBS News' Don Champion.
Shane, a professional firefighter, recently had to rescue his own daughter during "one of those freak accidents."
Like millions of kids, his daughter Emma has a fidget spinner. While she was playing with it a couple of weeks ago, one of the metal bearings inside came loose.
Emma tells CBS News it then flew out and went into her mouth.
She immediately started choking. Shane gave her back blows until she started breathing. At the hospital, an x-ray revealed she ended up swallowing the metal piece -- roughly the size of a quarter.
"Be careful with them, an accident can happen anytime," Shane says.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission is investigating incidents involving fidget spinners. The toys can fall apart or be taken apart.
Last month in Houston, a 10-year-old needed surgery to remove a bearing caught in her esophagus.
Also in Oregon, Cayden Boyd needed surgery after he swallowed a bearing.
"I think parents need to educate their children about the danger of these," Dr. Nina Shapiro from UCLA Mattel Children's Hospital said. "So I think just not to give these to younger children, children under six, and for older children to really explain that these are toys, but they also have risks. They should not be put in their mouths, they should not be taken apart."
Shane says he's sharing his daughter's close-call story for one reason.
"I don't want to have to see a parent go through what I went through," he said. "I don't want a kid to choke."
CBS2 reports that there are even smaller fidget spinners on the market now as well, and experts warn they can be dangerous for young children.
