So I’ve debated whether to post this or not but in the interest of preventing the same thing happening to someone else I thought I would share. Please, please discuss this with your children.
So DD1 (14 years) accidentally swallowed five tiny neodymium magnets this week when messing about on the school bus in the morning. They were pretending they were cheek piercings and seeing if the magnets would attract through their cheeks. Unfortunately she put the block inside her mouth the wrong way round and they repelled rather than attracted and she reflexively swallowed.
The danger of doing this cannot be understated and it is considered a medical emergency to do so, the risk of perforating your bowel is high and DD1 was lucky to not end up having a bowel resection or stoma. Essentially the magnets can attract from some distance either side of the loops in the colon and create a hole due to the strength of them (they are 20x stronger than regular magnets). She got away with one small hole and removal of said objects.
I’m mentioning this because the hospital said they have had a lot of cases like this recently as these magnets are a bit of a craze at the moment (see the linked article - apologies as it’s the Fail!), I believe they have been banned in NZ and Australia because of the risk of ingestion. So please speak to your children and even better don’t purchase them at all, I wouldn’t wish these last few days on anyone 😢
DD1 is utterly mortified and embarrassed by what has happened, a freak accident that could have been avoided! She’s doing well thankfully and should make a full recovery in the next couple of weeks 😊
www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-7931213/Medics-warn-magnetic-balls-FOUR-children-needed-surgery-swallowing-them.htmlh