A seven-year-old was rushed to the hospital with blisters after an ‘unheated’ squishy toy burst onto her hands, according to her mother.
Multiple children have sustained serious burns during a concerning trend of microwaving the toys to make them softer and more pliable.
However, mum René Barnard, 46, insists her daughter Livi had not heated the £12.99 NeeDoh toy and was simply left with burns when the seal failed, and the liquid contents spilt onto her hand.
When blisters started appearing on her hands despite immediately running them under cold water, René contacted 111 and headed straight to Princess Royal Hospital in Telford on June 22.
Following guidance from Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Livi’s wounds were dressed and she was discharged – before returning the following day to have her blisters removed.
A woman with two children standing close together under a tree, all smiling for a photograph.
She is now attending doctors daily to have her wounds re-dressed while they recover.
Mum-of-two and support worker René, from Telford, explained: “She came in from school on Monday and it was on the kitchen side.
“She loves this NeeDoh.
“We came in and I was cooking dinner in the kitchen and pottering around by the sink and she was at the kitchen table and she was like “mum, the liquid’s come out and it’s burnt my hand.
“I said ‘oh, let’s have a look’.
“It didn’t look like there was any blisters so I said to run it under the tap”.
“I Googled it and it said it was non-toxic so I thought it was going to be fine.
“And then every time she took her hand out of the cold water she was really in pain and I was thinking ‘do I go to the pharmacy, what do I do?'”.
“She is a tough tomboy seven-year-old so when she said it started to really hurt I knew something was wrong.”
René revealed she immediately rang 111 and was told to take Livi to hospital straight away.
A close-up view of a hand with visible burn injuries on the fingers and palm. The affected areas exhibit redness and blistering, indicative of thermal damage. The individual is wearing casual attire, with a portion of their lower body partially visible in the background. The setting appears to be an indoor environment with a wooden floor.
She continued: “As they have no burns unit in Telford, they had to take pictures and send them to Birmingham Children’s Hospital.
“We were then asked to go back the next day so they could treat her blisters, which required gas and air, and I now have to take her to the doctors every day to have the dressing changed.
“People were coming in, doctors with children, to the room to have a look and saying they will tell their wives to bin them [NeeDoh toys], that sort of thing.
“I’ll be keeping them separate in temperatures like we’ve had and keep them in the fridge.
“All the kids are playing with them at the moment.
An adult woman and two children are smiling on a beach, with the woman’s arm around the shoulders of one of the children. The child on the left side of the woman has a tattoo on their arm.
“But if this was a toddler it could have been really serious – thankfully Livi’s nine-year-old brother is not interested in the toys.”
Bigjigs Toys, the exclusive UK distributor for NeeDoh, which is made by US firm Schylling, said it was investigating the incident.
A spokesperson said: “We take all issues like this very seriously but we are aware of a number of fake products on the market so we have to determine if this was a real NeeDoh.”