Everything is awesome. Until you swallow LEGO for the sole purpose of seeing how long it takes to come out the other end.
But this is exactly what a team of Aussie scientists did. And all for the sake of our kids.
In what has to be one of the most interesting scientific studies out there, six paediatric health‐care professionals decided to dig deep (in their own poop) to determine if swallowing LEGO heads is putting our kids at risk.
Don’t try this at home…
Small toys are the second most commonly swallowed objects (after coins) so it makes sense that many mums would be wondering about this very thing.
But, as Don’t Forget the Bubbles explain, “There is very little data out there. We wanted to know how long it would take for a small piece of plastic toy, in this case a Lego head, to pass through.”
Questions: if six paediatric doctors ingest a lego head, how many of them will find it again?
Yup, we did it. All in the name of science (and @DFTBubbles).
Read our paper here: https://t.co/tZ4b9Yo8Kf pic.twitter.com/GDlOu4hodv
— Tessa Davis (@TessaRDavis) November 23, 2018
Pooping LEGO heads. Just another day at the office
Of course, they also ensured that their study was extra scientific with various acronyms to help analyse their data. Like the “Stool Hardness and Transit (SHAT) score. And let’s not forget the Found and Retrieved Time (FART) score.
Here’s how the study went down.
Step one. Eat LEGO heads. Yum yum.
Step two. Let LEGO heads pass through. After the team indulged in a lunch of LEGO heads, they waited to see what would happen.
Step three. Dig through poo. “As with any piece of research it is important to have a robust search strategy in place prior to commencement,” Don’t Forget the Bubbles explain. “A variety of techniques were tried – using a bag and squashing, tongue depressors and gloves, chopsticks – no turd was left unturned.”
Step four. Analyse the LEGO study results. So, just how long does it take for LEGO heads to pass through the system?
1.71 days. And with little complications to the bowels to boot!
“A toy object quickly passes through adult subjects with no complications. This will reassure parents, and the authors advocate that no parent should be expected to search through their child’s faeces to prove object retrieval,” they write.
So there you go. In case you were ever wondering how long it takes for your child to poop out that missing LEGO head, now you know. And, bonus, you don’t have to dig through your child’s faeces to find out.
Thank you, science.
See how the LEGO experiment went down
Don’t believe that this LEGO study could actually be real? I know, I had my doubts too. But the team also made a video of the study to prove that, yes, this was an actual scientific study.
And not just a bunch of people who took too many bong hits and decided to eat LEGO…
See kids, science can be fun!
Looking for more scientific studies that won’t put you to sleep? Check out this study which suggests that swearing actually makes you a good person.
