A 10-year-old girl on the Gold Coast has suffered serious burns after a popular squishy fidget toy exploded in her face, highlighting the dangers of a viral social media trend.
Incident Details
Violet Zerbst spent a week in hospital after heating a squishy toy in a microwave for 30 seconds. When she squeezed it, the superheated contents burst across her face, causing painful burns.
“The liquid was like at the bottom and then it went into a sort of ball and it burst onto my face,” Violet told 7NEWS. She had seen people online heating the toys to make them softer.
Her father, Jody Zerbst, said the toy “literally just exploded.” The hot contents splashed onto her face, lips, and mouth, leaving her screaming in pain. “I could feel my skin coming off. And it was in my mouth,” Violet said.
Emergency Response
Violet immediately ran to the bathroom, where her mother held her face under cold water while her father called an ambulance. Paramedics treated her at the scene before taking her to hospital, where she remained for a week recovering from her injuries.
Her father described the incident as “horrific for a parent to have to hear their child screaming and know that they’d burnt themselves.” He said the burns were so severe that skin peeled away from parts of Violet’s face.
Dangerous Viral Trend
The incident has reignited concerns about a social media craze on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube that encourages children to heat squishy toys in microwaves to soften them. Doctors say the trend has caused second and third-degree burns in children across Australia and overseas.
Violet was the second child rushed to Gold Coast Hospital University last week with burns from a squishy toy. “First of all, toys should not be going into the microwave,” Queensland Children’s Hospital burns specialist Dr Veevek Thankey said. He advised parents to run burns under cool running water for at least 20 minutes and not to use ice.
Some brands warn that the toys should never be heated, frozen, or microwaved, but many cheaper knock-offs are sold without the same safety warnings. A US child also suffered severe facial burns in a similar incident.
Now recovering at home, Violet and her family hope sharing their experience will stop other children from trying the dangerous trend.
