After daughter's ordeal, mom publishes warning about potential dangers of water beads
Key takeaways:
- Ashley Haugen’s daughter experienced bowel obstruction and neurological effects after ingesting water beads.
- Listen to what she has to say by clicking the player above, and read more about her story below.
When Ashley Haugen and her husband Jonathan took their daughter to a dermatologist to get a skin tag removed, he pointed to a rash around her mouth and recommended the couple stop using harsh soaps until it clears up.
Haugen could not recall using any harsh soaps, but she made a mental note anyway.
In the following weeks, their daughter, who was approaching her first birthday, was having trouble sleeping, losing weight and becoming more fussy than usual. Despite following the doctor’s instructions and using the prescribed soap, her rash was still present. Haugen mentioned it at her daughter’s 1-year checkup with her pediatrician, who did not seem too concerned, according to Haugen. The pediatrician told her that some babies experience behavioral changes around their first birthday.
“I was thinking, if something was really wrong, the doctor would know,” she said.
Over 1 month later, her daughter started vomiting. A lot. Haugen thought it was a stomach bug at first, but after a whole day of vomiting, Haugen and her husband took their daughter to the hospital to get fluids.
“She was throwing up so much, I could not even keep clothes on her,” Haugen said. “I took her in a diaper and a blanket.”
At the hospital, her daughter’s CT and ultrasound scans showed evidence of an intestinal obstruction. A surgeon explained to Haugen that he needed to perform an exploratory laparotomy to see what the problem was.
When the surgeon came out of the operating room, Haugen said he showed her a picture of what he found in her daughter’s small intestine.
“My husband and I recognized it immediately as the water bead material [our older daughter] had played with,” Haugen said.
The dangers of water beads
A week before their daughter’s rash appeared, the couple had purchased water beads for their older daughter’s 6th birthday. The beads that the Haugens purchased were advertised as nontoxic, ecofriendly and biodegradable, Haugen said.
“They used buzzwords that we now know are not regulated terms,” Haugen said. “At the time, we thought it meant that the product was safe.”
Water beads are superabsorbent balls are commonly used for gardening, decorations and toys. Image: Adobe Stock
Water beads are superabsorbent polymer balls that grow to more than 100-times their size in liquid. They are used for gardening and decorations, and some are marketed as sensory toys for children.
A systematic review presented at the AAP National Conference & Exhibition in 2024 documented 89 cases of children (64% girls; mean age, 14.2±4.6 months) who experienced bowel obstruction from water beads. In some cases, the beads passed through the digestive tract on their own, but most of the patients (84%) had to undergo abdominal surgery to remove them.
According to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, approximately 7,800 children visited EDs for water bead ingestion injuries from 2016 to 2022. A 10-month-old girl died from water bead-related injuries in 2023, according to the commission.
A trade association representing the toy industry noted that the Federal Hazardous Substances Act requires that manufacturers not expose consumers to harmful substances, but also that counterfeit products may not meet safety standards, “which is why consumers should only shop from trusted and recognized brands and retailers.”
“Since they are small parts, water beads are inherently unsuitable for children under 3 years old, and are regulated accordingly when used in toys,” The Toy Association told Healio.
“It is important to remember that certain types of water/gel beads (such as those used in florist supplies) are not toys and should not be used for play, since these items are not tested to comply with the same rigorous safety standards that are mandatory for toys,” the association said.
It said the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM) has specific requirements for expanding materials to prevent bowel obstruction in children as young as 18 months, but because incidents have been reported in children younger than that, ASTM is looking to extend safety requirements to children younger than age 18 months.
Neurological effects
After her surgery, Haugen’s daughter’s rash started to fade, and Haugen was relieved to see her daughter improve. But over time, Haugen said she and her husband noticed their daughter was becoming clumsier. She was no longer able to follow commands or instructions. She taught both of her daughters sign language as infants to communicate before they could speak, but her youngest was no longer speaking or signing.
Three months after the surgery, the couple sought the advice of a developmental pediatrician, who diagnosed their daughter with toxic brain encephalopathy, according to Haugen.
Haugen learned from the manufacturer that the water beads were made with polyacrylamide. According to the CDC, acrylamide toxicity affects the nervous system, causing symptoms like muscle weakness, numbness in the hands and feet and clumsiness.
Their daughter’s speech and language skills were most affected; at age 20 months, her receptive language age was 10 months, and her expressive language age was 12 months, according to a case report that Haugen coauthored. Her daughter was prescribed a low dose of oxcarbazepine to treat her neurological symptoms, and she began speech therapy to restore her language skills.
When her daughter was nearing her second birthday, 9 months after her surgery, Haugen noticed that her stools became grainy and dark. She was referred to a gastroenterologist, who performed a colonoscopy and found more water beads in her colon.
“That was almost a year after we had purchased the beads initially,” Haugen said.
By age 5 years, Haugen’s daughter scored in the 39th percentile of cognitive functioning. She continued to attend speech therapy, and Haugen said she has made significant forward progress since then.
That Water Bead Lady
Haugen’s daughter is 8 years old now, and she wants to become a doctor when she grows up, Haugen said. She said her daughter has become an “amazing little advocate” for removing water beads from store shelves so other children do not get hurt like she did.
Haugen is working with other families whose children have been injured or killed by water beads on that goal through her nonprofit organization, That Water Bead Lady. She launched the organization in 2022 to help families who have been impacted by consumer product injuries and spread awareness about the dangers of the products.
“For most families, when their child is injured by a consumer product, it is their first time in the hospital setting, possibly since they brought their baby home,” Haugen said.
She said they guide families through what questions to ask, how to be part of their child’s care team and how to find services in their community.
“You feel very overwhelmed and scared (in these situations),” Haugen said. “We make sure that they do not feel alone.”
Her website links to resources from the AAP and university health systems about the dangers of water beads and information about case studies and legislation across the country. She also started a petition to require warning labels on water bead products and ban them from being marketed as toys, which has gathered more than 100,000 signatures.
Physician outreach
While Haugen was working with a family through her nonprofit, she shared her daughter’s story with Elizabeth Friedman, MD, MPH, director of the Region 7 Pediatric Environmental Health Specialty Unit at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, who encouraged her to write a case report about her daughter.
Haugen teamed up with Friedman and Irina Duff, MD, PhD, a postdoctoral research fellow at Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, to translate her daughter’s story into an academic paper.
The case study was published in Pediatrics last month. The AAP noted that Haugen is one of the first parent advocates to coauthor and lead a case report publication in the journal.
One person who was more excited than Haugen about the study being published was her daughter.
“She wants doctors to be able to learn from what happened to her,” Haugen said. “She understands how important that is.”
Haugen offered three actions pediatricians can take in their practice to protect patients from water bead injuries.
First, she said pediatricians should talk to every family about water beads. Some schools and day care centers have water beads where children could access them without their parents’ knowledge, Haugen said. They can also be in other toys, like stress balls.
Haugen drafted a letter, which is available on her website, requesting facilities stop using water beads. She said parents or health care providers can share it with schools and child care centers to warn them about the hazards that water beads pose.
“The best way to avoid water bead injury is just to not have water beads in any environment where children visit or live,” she said.
Second, physicians should be aware that ingesting water beads is not the only way children can get injured. In her research, she found cases of children who put water beads in their nose or ears who had to get surgery, and some experienced symptoms from acrylamide exposure.
“It is not just little kids who can get hurt,” she said. “These were 4-, 5-, 6- or 7-year-old children.”
Finally, physicians should report product injuries to the CPSC through saferproducts.gov, Haugen said.
“If physicians and families do not report, then the Consumer Product Safety Commission does not become aware of the hazard,” she said.
References:
- American Poison Centers. Water beads safety. https://www.poisonhelp.org/2024/03/26/water-beads-toxic/.
- Haugen A, et al. Pediatrics. 2025;doi:10.1542/peds.2023-065575.
- Reeves PT, et al. Pediatrics. 2025;doi:10.1542/peds.2024-069447.
- That Water Bead Lady. https://thatwaterbeadlady.org/.
- United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. https://www.saferproducts.gov/.
- United States Consumer Product Safety Commission. Water beads safety education. https://www.cpsc.gov/Safety-Education/Safety-Education-Centers/Water-Beads-Information-Center. Accessed Feb. 12, 2025.