Parents have been nickel and diming me as to what to do when their child swallows a coin.

Let me see if I can cough up some information on this topic.

It turns out that as children explore the world, usually between the ages of 6 months and 4 years, it is almost inevitable that they will swallow things that are not necessarily nutritious — and coins probably lead that list.

In fact, at least 30,000 children are seen annually for coin ingestions in emergency departments. The good news is that if the coin is the size of a quarter or smaller, it almost always passes onward and outward uneventfully within a few days.

On rare occasions a coin can get stuck in the food pipe or air pipe and becomes a medical emergency. You’ll know this because your child will have difficulty breathing, talking, gasping, changing color from red to blue in the face, may show increased drooling or vomiting, and appears very panicked.

What Can You Do?

¯ Call 911 immediately. You will be instructed on how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver while help is on the way.

¯ The Heimlich Maneuver is one that allows you to push air upward from just below the ribs through the windpipe to dislodge the coin or whatever else your child is choking on.

¯ If you are concerned about where the coin might be are even if your child has no symptoms, please call your child’s health care professional. They will most likely want to get an X-ray to locate the coin and provide reassurance that things are moving in the right direction.

¯ If an x-ray suggests that the coin is caught in the foodpipe even without causing choking or discomfort for over 24 hours, a gastrointestinal or surgical specialist will be called to help remove the coin with the use of a device called an endoscope.

¯ Additionally, the New England Poison Control Center at 1-800-222-1222 is available to help guide you through what to do if you have questions about a swallowed coin.

Of course, the best way to prevent your child from swallowing a coin is not letting it happen! So, keep coins away from small children, and put them into a piggy bank instead.

Hopefully, tips like these will change things for the better when it comes to making sure that when a coin is accidentally swallowed, everything will come out fine in the end.

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Lewis First, MD, is Chief of Pediatrics at The University of Vermont Children’s Hospital and Chair of the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Vermont’s Larner College of Medicine. You can also catch “First with Kids” weekly on WOKO 98.9FM and NBC5.