A mother is warning other parents of the dangers of magnetic toys after her young son swallowed 13 magnets and had to undergo surgery. What are the dangers of magnetic toys?

Magnet Ingestion

Four-year-old Beck White fell ill around Christmas time, and his parents initially thought that he was suffering from the flu. But they knew it was something else altogether when their son vomited a dark color, and they immediately rushed him to the Children’s Hospital of Wisconsin.

True enough, X-rays revealed that Beck did not have the flu but was sick because he had 13 magnets inside him. Evidently, he broke open his toy and ingested the magnets. Once inside him, the magnets tried to get to one another through the intestines, thereby created holes in the lining.

As a result, he had to undergo surgery to remove parts of his intestine, colon, and appendix.
In a now-viral Facebook post, Beck’s mother, Jennifer, is warning parents about the dangers of magnetic toys so that they would be more careful with them, even around their pets.

“I feel guilty AF and horrible posting this but I don’t want another child to go through this. If you have little ones or chewers these are dangerous and we’re removing them from our home,” said Jennifer White.

The post has since garnered over 150,000 reactions and over 300,000 shares.

Magnetic Toys

From 2009 to 2013, about 2,900 cases of magnet ingestion were treated in emergency rooms in the United States, with a majority of the cases coming from children four to 12 years old. There are rules concerning magnets in toys, but they are still quite common and still accessible to children of all ages.

As such, experts believe that all magnetic toys should be properly labeled so that parents can have an informed decision on whether to give the potentially harmful toys to their children or not, and they further advise parents to consider the age of their children before giving them such toys. For instance, those with young children may want to refrain from giving their children magnetic toys so as to avoid potentially fatal consequences.