Inhaled foreign bodies in children.

We review a series of 115 children who attended the Royal Children's Hospital in Melbourne between 1979 and 1982 with the diagnosis of inhalation of a foreign body, or in whom a foreign body was found at bronchoscopy. Children between the ages of one and three years were the most commonly affected (75%) and boys outnumbered girls in the ratio 3:2. In 16% of cases the child did not present until more than one week after inhaling the foreign body. A peanut was the most common foreign body found (52% of cases), and it seems that many parents are still unaware that peanut ingestion can be hazardous in very young children.