Foreign body ingestion is commonly seen in children aged 6 months to 4 years—a time when exploring their environment is key to their development. The majority of foreign bodies pass through the gastrointestinal tract without causing any injury and can be managed expectantly. However, certain objects might induce significant harm if not recognised and managed emergently. Coins have been reported to be the most commonly ingested foreign bodies in Western societies. 1 More recently, button batteries and neodymium magnets are increasingly being encountered, often with serious associated complications. The 2020 British Association of Paediatric Surgeons winter campaign was focused on button batteries and the lifechanging complications they can cause. 2 Magnets commonly found in household toys also have the potential to cause serious injury. The Quadri-South East Paediatric Surgeons (QuadriSEPS) Group comprises four tertiary paediatric surgical centres: Evelina London Children’s Hospital, King’s College Hospital, St George’s University Hospitals and the Royal Alexandra Children’s Hospital. We have all witnessed a recent rise in magnet ingestion within our respective centres. Over a 5-year period between January 2016 and December 2020, we have admitted 251 children with foreign body ingestion. Coins were the the most common foreign body ingested (n= 93, 37%), followed by magnets (n= 52, 21%) and button batteries (n= 42, 17%). There was a steady increase in the total number of admissions, with a 56% increase in cases from 2016 to 2020. Worryingly, there was a fivefold increase in the incidence of magnet ingestion during the same time period (figure 1). Only 1/42 (2.4%) of button batteries required surgery for on November 14, 2023 at Google Indexer. Protected by copyright. http://adc. bmj. com/