A MELBOURNE boy has come close to death after swallowing 30 fridge magnets, thinking they were lollies.

Little Noah is a cheeky and adventurous five-year-old but his parents never suspected his inquisitive nature would almost kill him.

His mother Christelle Lefau says she found out something was wrong when her mother called to say Noah was curled up on the ground in pain.

Camera Icon It took surgeons six hours to remove the magnets from Noah’s stomach. Credit: Seven News

An x-ray then revealed he has swallowed dozens of small magnets.

"I thought maybe it's the little silver balls you use in cake decorating. They (doctors) said no its metal," she said.

Noah had dragged a chair to the fridge where magnets had been placed up out of his normal reach and swallowed 30 of them.

Camera Icon Noah Lefau in hospital after undergoing surgery to remove magnets from his stomach. Credit: Seven News.

"I must confess I've never seen a kid swallow 30 magnets," Dr Maurizio Pacilli, from Monash Children's Hospital, said.

"They travel along inside the intestine and they are attracted to each other trying to get together and by doing this they can create litle holes inside the gut.”

It took surgeons six hours to remove the magnets.

"We found 10 or 12 holes which we had to stitch one at a time and we had to remove some parts of the intestine," Dr Pacilli said.

Ms Lefau said he son was lucky to be alive.

"If it was less than half a day longer he would have died," she said.

Camera Icon Noah ate the magnets after mistaking them for sweets. Credit: Seven News.

Doctors say they have seen an alarming increase in the number of children swallowing magnets and while many parents are aware of the dangers of button batteries experts warn magnets can be just as deadly.