Off The Record

One-Year-Old Baby In ‘Extreme Pain’ After Swallowing Toy – Mother Urges Ban On ‘Awful’ Children’s Toy

Published on March 24, 2025

After needing surgery to remove the magnets from her body, a newborn who inadvertently swallowed them from a toy nearly died.

Araya Whateley, a one-year-old from Northamptonshire, now has a stoma bag after undergoing a seven-hour emergency surgery to remove a portion of her colon.

Isla, Araya’s nine-year-old sister, received the magnetic beads from a classmate in a “school swapsie.“

Isla left the beads on the back seat of their car, and her mother, Hannah, 29, was unaware that Araya was eating them.

It wasn’t until Araya began vomiting on February 21 that she realized something was very wrong.

She was treated for gastroenteritis at Northampton General Hospital after Hannah hurried her there.

After being released, Araya began choking in the hospital parking lot and was taken back to A&E.

Araya was sent to Leicester Royal Infirmary after an X-ray showed that she had ingested four balls that had gathered in her stomach.

Hannah, a single mother, is calling for the selling of the magnetic balls to be prohibited.

Speaking from her daughter’s hospital bed, she said: “I don’t want anyone to go through this, it is every parent’s worst nightmare.”

Before any more children are admitted to hospitals, these terrible things must be outlawed right away.

Hannah claims that when she learned the reason behind her daughter’s condition, she was taken aback.

She added: “I was panicking.”

“We were urgently transferred to Leicester Infirmary and she had surgery that morning. There were six magnets in total which were stuck together in a clump.”

“The magnets have caused Araya’s intestine to close and it killed that part of her bowel, which was starving her.”

“There was another hole that needed repairing on the other side of her intestine, which is attempting to be done using a stoma bag.”

The stoma bag isn’t functioning right now.

She is not ingesting anything; everything she eats is exiting via her stoma.

She produces more than she takes in.

When I was informed, I felt guilty because I didn’t know.

“It was a freak accident and my heart just broke for her – it’s still breaking.”

“Eating causes a considerable amount of pain and I’m scared to feed her because I know she’s in extreme pain.”

The physicians now believe it is reversible, and the stoma bag will stay in place for a few months.

Since she has been unable to eat, Araya is scheduled to have a total parenteral nutrition (TPN) line installed, which is a catheter that will provide nutrients into her bloodstream.

Hannah, a care worker, said: “You don’t realise the damage magnetic sculpting balls are capable of.”

Araya is extremely fortunate, according to the doctor, who has witnessed the worst-case situations throughout the previous ten years.

“It can cause catastrophic damage.”