The seven-year-old had not heated the toy and says it just broke open
A seven-year-old was rushed to hospital with blisters after an unheated’ squishy toy exploded onto her hands, her mum claims. Several children have suffered serious burns amid a dangerous trend of heating the toys in the microwave, to make them softer and easier to squeeze.
But mum René Barnard, 46, says her daughter Livi did not heat up the £12.99 NeeDoh toy and was simply left with burns after the seal broke and the liquid inside leaked onto her hand. After blisters began to form on her hands despite running it under a cold tap straight away, René called 111 and went straight to Princess Royal Hospital in Telford, Shropshire.
After advice was sought from Birmingham Children’s Hospital, Livi’s wounds were dressed and she was sent home – before returning the next day to have her blisters removed. She is now visiting doctors daily to have her wounds re-dressed while they heal.
Mum-of-two and support worker René, from Telford, said: “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 said she called 111 immediately and was advised to rush Livi to hospital. She added: “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.
“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.”
