• Posted February 4, 2025

Parents Call for Water Bead Ban After Child’s Brain Injury

They're small, colorful and marketed as safe sensory toys but water beads have sent thousands of kids to the emergency room -- and now, experts and parents want their sale to be banned.

Water beads can expand up to 100 times their size when exposed to water. If swallowed, they can cause intestinal blockages, breathing problems and even toxic effects on the brain, according to a study published Jan. 28 in the journal Pediatrics.

In fact, one of the study's authors, Ashley Haugen, knows the risks firsthand.

When her daughter, Kipley, was a toddler, she developed a rash, began vomiting and started struggling with coordination.

Doctors later discovered she had swallowed water beads, which caused a severe blockage in her intestines. 

"Because the water beads were marketed as non-toxic eco-friendly and biodegradable, everybody thought that she would be fine," Haugen told CBS News.

Instead, Kipley was diagnosed with toxic brain encephalopathy, a condition that can cause developmental delays and long-term neurological challenges.

"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," study co-author Dr. Elizabeth Friedman, the medical director for environmental health at Children's Mercy Kansas City, told CBS News. 

An estimated 7,800 cases of water bead ingestion were treated in U.S. emergency rooms between 2016 and 2022, according to the study.

In 2023, a 10-month-old child died after swallowing the beads, according to the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission.

Now 8 years old, Kipley is still recovering but has joined her mom in calling for banning water beads.

"Please work together to ban water beads. Lots of kids like me got hurt," CBS News reported. 

Haugen now runs an advocacy group called That Water Bead Lady, which has resources for families whose children have been injured by unsafe products.

"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. 

More information

That Water Bead Lady has more information on the danger of water beads for children.

SOURCES: CBS News, media report, Feb. 3, 2025; Pediatrics, Jan. 28, 2025