A father watched in horror as his 7-year-old daughter’s clothing was burned through and the skin was ripped off her little body by the boiling fluid from a squishy toy after a disastrous TikTok challenge.
Like many children her age, seven-year-old Scarlett Selby from Missouri delighted to play with her NeeDoh squishy toy, but what started out as a harmless experiment turned out to be a disastrous mishap.
The young girl from a St. Louis suburb was motivated to level up her toy after watching videos on TikTok of people freezing and microwaving the toy to make it more malleable.
The squishy stress cubes made by Schylling Toys come with a warning label that reads, “Do NOT heat, freeze, or microwave, may cause personal injury.”
Despite the warnings, social media users were testing the product’s limits by sharing videos of themselves heating, freezing, or biting the polyvinyl alcohol-containing rubber jelly toys.
Determined to give her toy a little more joy, Scarlett placed her squishy in the freezer for the night and then briefly warmed it in the microwave the next day.
“She had frozen the NeeDoh cube the night before, and the next day she showed me it was rock solid and was playing with it,” her father, Josh Selby, 44, told the New York Post. She put it in the microwave. Observing her, I saw that before removing it, she touched it to make sure it wasn’t too hot.
But when she removed it, the seemingly harmless experiment went horribly wrong.
“A scream that stops the heart”
“It all happened so quickly,” Selby said, recalling the horrifying moment when the NeeDoh toy exploded and smothered the youngster in burning goo, which has been compared to a “napalm-like substance.”
Hearing her was like listening to a spine-tingling scream. Selby rushed over after hearing his daughter’s excruciating screams and tried to wipe the bubbling slime from her clothes and body. He said, “It had exploded all over her mouth, chin, and chest.”
But because the substance was “thick and sticky,” it was difficult for him to get rid of Scarlett.
Every time I touched her, my hand stuck to her. It was fairly thick and sticky. “I tore her shirt off of her because it was stuck to her shirt as well,” the father said, referring to the incident that happened about five months ago.
I was completely haphazard. During her week-long hospital stay, she spent three days in a coma. “I don’t think I could talk to anyone without crying all the time,” he continued.
“I’m still yelling.”
Scarlet and Selby’s mother, Amanda Blakenship, rushed their daughter to the hospital.
It was causing her great pain. She was still wailing when we got to the hospital, which is around a half-hour’s drive from our home. “It was awful how scared she was and how much that hurt her,” the 35-year-old mother told the Daily Mail.
When the family arrived to St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Scarlett was placed in an induced coma for three days while doctors battled tirelessly to stabilize her condition. Additionally, a feeding tube was placed because to the extent of the injury to her lips.
After a week, she was finally discharged from the hospital, but her troubles had only started.
“Aware of oneself”
When Scarlett was undergoing therapy for her injuries, doctors decided against giving her a skin transplant, but because of how badly damaged she is, her mother fears that it might still be necessary.
Moreover, Blankenship said the “deep scars” extend beyond the physical world.
She often finds Scarlett staring at herself in the mirror with tears streaming down her cheeks after taking a bath, a painful reminder of the suffering she has endured.
“She gets really self-conscious, and sometimes I see her trying to cover up her scar with her shirt when we’re out in public,” Blakenship said. “She’ll also come home from school and say another kid asked her about it.” I tell her that she doesn’t need to feel guilty about it. The accident was terrible, and she went through a lot.
The father’s warning
Since the accident, Scarlett’s father has advised other parents to discard the toys.
He remarked, “I never would have thought something like that would explode outside of the microwave.”My daughter going through that was the worst thing I have ever gone through.
Selby goes on, “I’ve told everyone to throw them out if they have them.” The material in it works similarly to glue, so it’s like hot glue blasting on you. Once it has touched you, it cannot be taken away.
It prohibits the “display or promotion of dangerous activities and challenges or violence,” according to TikTok. Clips of the NeeDoh microwave challenge have subsequently been removed. “This may include dares, games, tricks, inappropriate use of dangerous tools, eating substances that are harmful to one’s health, or similar activities that may lead to significant physical harm.”
What are your thoughts on the destiny of this adorable young girl? Please share this story with others to raise awareness of the dangers of heating squishy toys.
