Mum's Amazon toy warning after son swallowed magnetic toy

Louise Mcfarlane bought her eight-year-old son Junior Gallon a set of magnetic building balls from Amazon two years ago.

The 36-year-old said Junior had only used the magnets for building models as intended and had never put them in his mouth before.

But on December 22 Junior called his mum to his room confessing he'd accidentally swallowed two of the magnets while pretending to have a 'cool' tongue piercing.

Doctors warned there was a danger of them attaching on opposite sides of a vital organ causing catastrophic damage and that if the balls had been jagged, Junior's bowel could have been ripped open. (Image: Kennedy News and Media) Housekeeper Louise said the two balls, on either side of his tongue, 'pinged' off his tongue and 'shot off' to the back of his throat.

Terrified, the mum-of-two rushed Junior to hospital where an x-ray showed the magnets clumped together in his stomach.

Doctors warned there was a danger of them attaching on opposite sides of a vital organ causing catastrophic damage and that if the balls had been jagged, Junior's bowel could have been ripped open.

Concerned staff also advised Junior to keep away from other magnets and even metal items, including zips on clothing, as it could move the magnets from where they were.

Having binned all the magnetic toys in the house, Louise is now sharing Junior's scary experience to ensure it doesn't happen to anyone else.

Louise, from Shanklin, Isle of Wight, said: "Junior had come out of his room and said 'Mummy, I've got an emergency'.

"I went in and he said he swallowed two of these magnets. He burst out crying.

"He had never put them in his mouth [before], just modelled with them. I rang 111 and they told us to go to A&E.

"He said he thought it would be 'cool' having a tongue piercing.

"He had tried to make it look like a tongue piercing and as soon as he had done that, they pinged off his tongue and popped together.

"They're very small and very powerful. They got stuck at the back of his throat and he swallowed them.

"The main reason they were worried is because if they were separate in his body they could've met at either side of a vital organ.

"They asked if they were smooth, they worried if they were jagged they would rip open his bowels.

"They told us to keep magnetic items and clothes away from him, even zips, because the magnets in his body can follow the zips.

"We had to make sure we had no clothing like that for a good few weeks.

"He was lucky they pinned together before he swallowed them, it could've been a completely different story.

"We always tell him not to put them in his mouth and obviously he panicked when he swallowed them because he knew it was the wrong thing to do.

"I'm so glad he told me, it was very worrying."

He was kept in hospital overnight and had an x-ray the next day, showing the magnets had moved to the right side of his body.

Louise was told that he was out of danger and to wait until he naturally passed the magnets.

Despite no sign of the magnets being passed, a subsequent x-ray confirmed they were no longer in his body.

Louise said: "You hear horror stories when kids do die, with batteries and stuff, so you instantly think the worse.

"His dad and I really prepared ourselves, but it was a massive relief when we realised he was okay.

"I was just in shock for a lot of the time and then it checked how dangerous it could be."

Now, Louise has vowed not to buy magnetic toys ever again and warns parents against getting them for their kids.

Louise said: "They're on social media, people have thousands of them and they build lots of things like houses.

"Junior wanted them to build after he watched those videos.

"He had them for so long and he never put them in his mouth, so I was baffled as to why he's done it now.

"Don't buy them, it's not worth it. They look cool in the videos but it's just not worth having them around, even if you trust your kids not to put them in their mouths.

"I trusted Junior and then all of a sudden he had one silly thought.

"I won't buy any magnetic toys again, there's loads of other toys. He has autism so he likes his fidget toys, but the magnets went straight in the bin."

An Amazon spokesperson said: "We are saddened to hear about this incident and we are reaching out to the family affected.

"Safety is a top priority at Amazon and we require all products offered in our store to comply with applicable laws, regulations and our policies.

"We have proactive measures in place to prevent prohibited products from being listed and we continuously monitor our store.

"We have removed this product while we investigate."