Mum claims baby left with severe burns after celery 'turned into giant hogweed'
Just weeks after a seven-month-old baby was left with horrific burns to her face following an allergic reaction to celery, her mother has opened up about the life-altering 'mum guilt' she now feels over the incident.
Mother-of-two Tyler Field had been enjoying a day out in the sunshine with her newborn daughter Imelda on 15 May when the duo stopped for a spot of lunch.
"I gave Imelda a celery stick for something to chew on and never really questioned it in my mind," the 25-year-old told press this week.
"She was then sat outside in the sun with her sun hat on. Within three hours, I noticed her cheeks and hands were a bit red."
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Within a matter of 15 minutes of snacking on the root vegetable, a painful looking rash began appearing all over the tot's body, leaving her stay-at-home mother baffled.
"I couldn't work it out at first," Tyler confessed. "I thought she had had an allergic reaction but she'd had celery inside before and she hadn't eaten anything new before.
"It looked like burns, I was really concerned. I thought she's some sunburnt somehow."
Meeting up with a friend later in the day, she had no idea that her daughter was suffering with a severe allergic reaction until the friend asked if she'd consumed celery.
"My heart just dropped," she admitted. "Apart from her, none of my friends had heard of it before. I looked online and saw it could cause all sorts of burns and blisters and thought we'd got away with this.
"She only had a bit of redness around her mouth and hands."
As the day continued, however, Imelda's rash only worsened, with agonising, fluid-filled blisters beginning to appear on her arm and mouth.
"I had them on my arms too from where she had touched me," Tyler explained. "You can see the little fingerprints on my arm. I was so shocked.
"By the next day, the blisters became weeping skin. Then it started scabbing over and she still has a lot of redness on her face and hands."
Berkshire-based Tyler had no idea that her child was actually suffering from phytophotodermatitis ('margarita burns').
This condition occurs when the sap from certain plants such as giant hogweed - but also carrots, celery and limes - gets on the skin and is then exposed to sunlight.
Following the incident, Tyler claims she was left with devastating 'mum guilt' after watching her child suffer from lunch-induced burns.
"I was crying into my boyfriend's chest. I felt so guilty and I know it's completely irrational but, as a mum, you feel like you should know these things. I will never make that mistake again," she claims.
Now, she's using she and Imelda's experience to warn other parents about the bizarre risks of eating these such vegetables outdoors.
"It's a summer food that everyone eats," Tyler explains. "It's really concerning. I think it's more prevalent in children because they're messy eaters and it's smeared all over their skin.
"But throughout this whole thing, I'm really surprised how little people actually know about this."
Tyler was later treated for her burns, yet her mother says the infant 'could be scarred for a very long time because of this'.
"I just want to make people aware and let them know it's celery burn. It's just not common knowledge and needs to be more widely known."
Topics: Parenting, Food and Drink, Health, UK News
Rhianna Benson