Doctors in London report fivefold increase in children swallowing magnets

Button batteries and magnets found in certain types of children's toys associated with complications

There has been a fivefold increase in magnet ingestion over the past five years in young children amid a steady rise in hospital admissions in London caused by the swallowing of foreign objects, doctors have said.

While most of the time objects pass out of the body naturally without incident, button batteries and small permanent magnets found in cordless tools, hard disk drives, magnetic fasteners and certain types of children's toys have been associated with complications.