Madison Burgess
A seven-year-old girl was put in a coma and suffered horrific injuries after a squishy toy exploded while she was attempting a dangerous social media trend.
In October 2024, Scarlett Selby, from Festus, Missouri, put a NeeDoh cube into the freezer and then microwaved it for a few seconds to make it more malleable after seeing videos of people doing it on TikTok.
However, as she tried to take it out of the microwave, it exploded and showered her face and chest with red-hot goo from inside the cube.
Her dad, Josh Selby, 44, rushed over after hearing a 'blood-curdling scream' and tried to wipe the substance off her skin and clothes.
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He ripped off her shirt to try and help the situation and then rushed the youngster to hospital, where she was placed in an induced coma over fears the burns on her mouth would cause her airways to swell up and close.
In March, it was reported that Scarlett was waiting to see if she would need skin grafts on the second and third-degree burns she sustained.
Recalling what happened, Scarlett’s dad Josh said: “She'd frozen the NeeDoh cube the night before and the next day she showed me it was rock solid and was playing with it.
"She stuck it in the microwave. I was watching her and saw her touch it to check it wasn't too hot when she pulled it out.
"It all happened so quickly. I heard her scream and it was like a blood-curdling scream. It had exploded all over her chest, mouth and chin.”
He continued: "My first thought was to try and wipe it off her. Whenever I touched her, my hand stuck to her. It was really thick and sticky.
"I ripped her shirt off of her because it was stuck to her shirt as well. I took her as quickly as I could to the hospital.
"I was a complete mess. She spent a week in the hospital and for three days of that she was in the coma. I don't think I could speak to anybody without crying the entire time."
Scarlett's mum Amanda Blakenship said her young daughter had seen clips of people microwaving the toy on other people's social media accounts and wanted to try it out for herself.
She heartbreakingly explained: “She was still screaming when we got to the hospital and it's a good 30-minute drive from where we live. It was terrible how scared she was and how much that hurt her.
"I was panicked, devastated, terrified and heartbroken. It was [something] she followed that she'd seen on TikTok and YouTube."
Following the horrific accident, the American couple are urging anyone with these toys to throw them out to prevent the same thing happening to anyone else.
Josh said: "I would have never thought of something exploding outside of the microwave like that.
"For that to happen to my daughter was the hardest thing that I've gone through. I've told absolutely everyone to throw them out if they have them.
"The product that's in it is like glue so you essentially have hot glue exploding on you. Once it touches you, there's no way to get it off.”
He urged: "It should not be sold like it is and it definitely should not be marketed the way it is. If something can explode like that, it definitely shouldn't be frozen."
Scarlett was placed on a feeding tube for the duration of her week-long stay in hospital due to her lips being so badly burned.
Doctors decided against performing a skin graft on the seven-year-old while she was in hospital, but Amanda worries she may need one in the future as she's been left with 'profound' scars.
Toy company Schylling Toys, which manufactures NeeDoh toys, has a warning on its website that reads 'Do NOT heat, freeze, or microwave, may cause personal injury'.
Tyla has contacted Schylling Toys for comment.
TikTok told Kennedy News that it doesn't allow content that shows or promotes dangerous behaviour.
It also said it has created technology that alerts its safety teams to sudden increases in violative content linked to hashtags to help detect potentially harmful trends.
YouTube said it is a 13+ platform and accounts found belonging to people under 13 without parental supervision can either set up a supervised account or will be terminated.
It said it has strict rules prohibiting content that features minors engaging in dangerous activities, including content related to challenges that pose an imminent risk of physical injury.
It said the safety of users is an 'utmost priority' and it 'vigorously removes this type of content'.