Surgeons are urging parents not to buy magnetic toys for Christmas after a surge in children needing operations after swallowing them.
They also called for schools to ban the magnets and warned that some children had accidentally swallowed them after copying influencers on TikTok.
Cases have increased fivefold in the last five years according to research by the Children's Surgery Foundation.
Figures from four hospitals in south east England reveal 251 children were admitted after swallowing objects between 2016 and 2020.
Of these, 52 cases or 21% were magnets, 93 cases or 37% were coins and 42 cases or 17% were button batteries.
Most children tended to swallow brightly coloured magnets from matchstick-shaped pieces found in children’s building sets, said consultant paediatric surgeon Hemanshoo Thakker.
He added: “This year alone Evelina London has seen 15 new cases of children swallowing magnets and have operated on seven of them, a couple of whom were very unwell.”
Among them was two-year-old Jimmy Bui, of Ramsgate, Kent, who swallowed three magnets and had to have surgery in June.
His father Hung Bui, 33, told how the tiny magnets had been used to stick a note to the fridge.
“He started to get tired and then stopped eating and going to the toilet so we took him to our local A&E," he said.
“We had no idea that he had swallowed three of the magnets until we saw it on the x-ray.
“The magnets had stuck together causing a hole in Jimmy’s bowel. He was transferred to Evelina London Children’s Hospital for surgery and spent three weeks recovering there."
Mr Bui said the ordeal happened despite his care and attention and said he wants to warn other parents to be vigilant.
He urged them not to buy toys containing such magnets which he has since thrown out of his home.
Just 2% of children who swallowed button batteries needed surgery to remove them.
However, an astonishing 42% of those who swallowed magnets required either keyhole surgery or more invasive ops such as an incision through the abdominal wall to get to the gut.
Mr Thakkar said if children swallow one magnet, it will likely pass through their body harmlessly but swallowing two or more could be more dangerous.
"If they swallow two or more magnets, especially at different times, the magnets, which are increasingly very powerful, are forced together in the intestines, squeezing the tissue so that the blood supply is cut off," he added.
“Significant damage can be caused within hours with holes being made in the children’s intestines which cause the children to be unwell, and sometimes seriously ill, with many requiring complex operations to remove the magnets and requiring long periods of recovery time in hospital.”
Paediatric surgeon Caroline Pardy, of the Evelina hospital, said the growing number of referrals for children who have swallowed multiple magnets is very worrying.
“Fortunately, the majority can be monitored using x-rays to follow the passage of the magnets out of the bowel and can avoid surgery," she continued.
"But we have seen a number of children who have become seriously unwell, particularly in young non-verbal children and in whom the magnet ingestion has not been recognised.”
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