Categories: Consumer Product Safety Commission, magnets, magnet injuries, child safety

According to a report released by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), injuries caused by children swallowing magnets can be major.  Toys are increasingly manufactured with magnets. Once a magnet falls out of a toy, children are prone to ingesting it.  In more than 30 cases, emergency surgery was required for children who had swallowed a magnet.

From ten-months to 11 years old, magnet victims tend to be boys over the age of three.  Unlike other swallowed items that pass through the body, magnets can be fatal.  In the intestine magnets can pivot or pinch the intestine, becoming caught in the body, causing a blockage, holes, blood poisoning or even an infection in the intestine. In most magnet injuries, sufferers endure intestinal perforations that requires hospitalization between three and 19-days.

In cases where a child is suspected of swallowing a magnet, seek immediate medical attention.  General symptoms associated with a child swallowing a magnet include but are not limited to the following

•    Abdominal pains

•    Diarrhea – loose stools

•    Nausea

•    Regurgitation - vomiting

The sad part is that children across the nation continue to be rushed to the emergency room for magnet injuries.  In effort to minimize the number of magnet related injuries, the CPSC has issued five recalls, including eight million products produced with magnets.

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