The sachet inside the packaged cake was labeled Do Not Eat. The 5-year-old girl who found it emptied the dark gray-brown powder onto her slice and ate it. Her parents brought her to the emergency department about half an hour later. She was alert, had no fever, and her vital signs were normal for her age.
Her abdominal X-ray did not show a coin, a battery, or any recognizable object. It showed countless fine bright specks scattered through her stomach and small bowel, a pattern the treating team described as sandstorm-like. The material was identified as iron powder mixed with sodium chloride, the standard filling of an oxygen absorber. The girl had no symptoms during observation, and no specific treatment was required. The case report appeared in January in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.
