Consumer Reports is advising families with small children to stay away from magnet toys and products for adults that have small, strong magnets.

Why?

Because babies don’t understand that eating a bunch of magnets will cause them to die, and it’s really hard to explain it to them. It’s probably easier to just not buy them.

From Consumer Reports:

Given the ongoing problems with these toys, and the potential for serious injury or death, we continue to recommend that parents avoid all magnetic toys if there are young children in their home. We also recommend caution when purchasing products made for adults that may contain strong magnets (such as those used on some bulletin boards). Many of these are small and colorful and could easily be swallowed by children.

Magnets can be, and have been, fatal to children who swallowed more than one. The magnets attract inside the body, and well, it’s just not pretty.

So if you do have very small children who are not yet at an age where they know what not to put in their mouths, you might want to stay away from magnets.

Latest toy recall raises additional concern over magnets [Consumer Reports]

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