Hundreds of children were admitted to hospital for swallowing magnets in a single year including several taking part in a social media trend, new research has found.
A study by the University of Southampton found one in 10 of those children needed life-saving surgery after swallowing magnets found in toys.
More worryingly, about 6% of cases happened after trying a social media trend where they tried to imitate tongue piercings by placing small magnets in their mouths.
The study, published in the journal Archives of Diseases in Childhood, found that more than two in every 100,000 children swallow magnets each year.
That data was provided by 66 UK hospitals between May 2022 and April 2023 – but the true number of cases could be much higher because not all hospitals shared their data.
In 2021, a two-year-old girl had to have her intestines temporarily removed during life-saving surgery after she swallowed 14 magnetic balls.
Rebecca McCarthy’s mum Sam said she didn’t realise her daughter had swallowed the colourful toys until her daughter vomited one lunchtime.
Doctors had to remove her intestines to reach the magnetic balls, which had attracted together and buried deep into her tissue.
Sam, from Basildon in Essex, said: ‘Rebecca’s accident devastated the whole family. She had months of ongoing health issues.
‘I still find it incredibly painful to think about. The memory will never fade.
‘I would hate for any other child to go through what Becca suffered because of buying dangerous toys from sellers on online marketplaces.’
Nigel Hall, professor of paediatric surgery who works at the university and Southampton Children’s Hospital, said parents should be aware of the danger of buying toys containing magnets.
Research by the Child Accident Prevention Trust found toys for sale with a flux of 850, much stronger than the legal limit of 50, which are powerful enough to ‘rip through a child’s guts’.
Professor Hall explained: ‘These magnets have potential to harm a large number of children and young people and increase work for the NHS.
The dangers of swallowing magnets
Initially it’s possible for children to swallow magnets without experiencing any symptoms.
However, after being swallowed the objects can then join together in the intestines or bowels.
This squeezes the tissue, potentially cutting off the blood supply and causing serious complications.
Advice from Kings College Hospital said about 80% of foreign bodies will be passed without any medical intervention, but symptoms that the object may have become stuck in the stomach or intestines includes:
- Ongoing vomiting
- Abdominal pain
- Blood in their vomit or poo
- A fever
- Child refuses food or fluids, or other changes to their eating habits
If these symptoms are shown, or if parents suspect the child may have swallowed more magnets or foreign bodies, they should be taken back to A&E.
‘Yet many magnetic toys provide very little warning for parents and caregivers of the dangers they pose, particularly those purchased from online marketplaces.
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‘Having an unplanned emergency operation is a traumatic experience for any child and their family – and needing a surgical procedure means time in hospital for days after.
‘Around one in 10 of these young patients had surgery with most ending up with serious problems, like needing part of their bowel removed or requiring a stoma.
‘Most children who have swallowed a magnet do not show any symptoms, so it is really important that all cases have an X-ray to find out for certain.’
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