New Study Reveals How Long It Would Take to Poop a LEGO

If you’ve found yourself worrying because you get swallowed a LEGO piece, we’re happy to inform you it’s not going to be sticking around in your gut for too long. In fact, according to a recent study published in The Journal of Pediatrics and Child Health, it’ll be in your system for just about two days until nature runs its course.

Six pediatricians that collaborate on a blog network called Don’t Forget The Bubbles each ingested the head of a LEGO minifig and waited for the miniature toy to appear in their stool. On average, it took the LEGO head 1.71 days to make it’s way to the toilet.

As the experiment’s abstract states, “pre-ingestion bowel habits were standardised by the Stool Hardness and Transit SHAT) score” before the willing participants swallowed the LEGO head and pooped it out, which was recorded as the Found and Retrieve Time (FART) score.

“The FART score averaged 1.71 days,” the abstract reads. “There was some evidence that females may be more accomplished at searching through their stools than males, but this could not be statistically validated.”

Participation in the experiment was dependent on a participants willingness to search through fecal matter and they had to have no previous history of gastrointestinal surgeries.

In conclusion, the researchers claim that LEGO heads quickly pass through adults with no complications whatsoever, which should reassure parents. The conclusion ends by saying that the journal’s authors “advocate that no parent should be expected to search through their child’s feces to prove object retrieval.”

While medical journals are traditionally stripped from colorful language, it’s clear that the Don’t Forget The Bubbles group took the extra step to have fun with this experiment in particular.

How did a group of scientists and medical professionals come up with such an idea? The group ultimately decided to go with a “lighter” experiment for their next paper.

“In one of our regular editorial meetings we were discussing some of our upcoming publications and musing how we could do something a little lighter, akin to the great Peppa Pig paper in last years Christmas BMJ,” the team said in a FAQ on their website. “And then Andy Tagg said, “I’ve got this idea but you might think it a bit strange.” Within a short space of time we had an international team of researchers literally chomping at the bit to undertake the study.”