A mother is speaking out about a popular children’s toy that left her daughter with brain damage.
Kipley Haugen, an eight-year-old in Texas, suffered brain damage after swallowing water beads that got stuck in her intestines and shut off blood supply to her brain.
She is now left with speech delays, as well as muscle weakness and trouble walking.
Doctors believe the ‘toxic’ materials used to make the beads may have attacked her nervous system and killed brain cells, leading to cognitive issues.
Her mother, Ashley Haugen, now runs an advocacy group focused on banning the toys.
She told CBS News: ‘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.’
It all started when Kipley was just over a year old and developed a mysterious rash and started waking up multiple times throughout the night.
Weeks later, Kipley began projectile vomiting so violently that she couldn’t hold down any food or water.
Surgery revealed Kipley had secretly swallowed water beads – small absorbant balls that expand in water – that her older sister had received as a birthday gift.
Kipley Haugen, pictured here as a toddler, suffered permanent brain damage after swallowing her sister’s water beads
Water beads are marketed as children’s toys and said to have sensory benefits. However, they can expand up to 400 times their size and lead to deadly blockages if ingested
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Mrs Haugen and her husband were shocked, as Kipley’s older sister, Abigail, was supervised while she played with the beads, and they were kept away from Kipley.
The beads ballooned in size and caused a blockage in Kipley’s small intestine. Left untreated, this can cause the bowel to die and cut off blood supply to the intestines.
Kipley’s surgery went as plan and doctors successfully removed all of the water bead fragments from her intestine. But four months later, Kipley started losing her balance and stopped responding to her name and eating her favorite foods.
Mrs Haugen wrote on her advocacy website The Water Bead Lady: ‘My heart sank. We were losing her.’
After developmental screening, Kipley was diagnosed with toxic brain encephalopathy, which may have cut off blood flow and oxygen to her brain.
Writing about Kipley’s case in a medical journal this month, doctors wrote that the chemicals used to make the water beads – polyacrylamide and acrylamide – are ‘known neurotoxins’ that may have disrupted her normal cognitive function and caused permanent damage.
Now eight years old, Kipley has language and motor delays, as well as muscle weakness, though Mrs Haugen told CBS News she ‘has made a lot of progress.’
Mrs Haugen is now using her nonprofit to raise awareness of the dangers of water beads and prevent injuries in other children.
She wrote on her website: ‘We grieve for the baby [Kipley] used to be, it is agonizing to think of the pain she endured, and the challenges she continues to face each day.
‘Our story is a warning I hope you hear. Water beads should not be used for play.’
Water beads are typically the size of a pencil tip, but when they get wet, they can expand up to 400 times their size.
So, if they’re swallowed they can get lodged in a child’s airway, causing them to stop breathing, or become stuck in the intestine, leading to a life-threatening obstruction.
The toys sent an estimated 7,800 children in the US to the emergency room between 2016 and 2022, according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission.
Kinley, pictured here in the hospital after swallowing the beads, now has language and motor delays, as well as muscle weakness
Polyacrylamide and acrylamide are synthetic molecules used to make products like water beads absorbant and expandable.
While the effects still are not well known, recent research has shown exposure can lead to neurotoxicity, neurological damage from toxins.
The researchers in Kipley’s case report wrote: ‘Because acrylamide monomer can cause neurotoxicity, some uses of polyacrylamide and the amounts of acrylamide permitted to contaminate it are regulated, but residual acrylamide and polyacrylamide used in water beads are not.
‘We recommend a ban on the sale and marketing of children’s toys containing water beads and that the hazards associated with ingestion be clearly labeled on all products that contain water beads.’
Mrs Haugen and Kipley have urged lawmakers to ban water bead sales to prevent further injuries.
Kipley told CBS News: ‘Please work together to ban water beads. Lots of kids like me got hurt.’
