Kids Suffer Severe Hand Burns After Trying Popular DIY Slime Trend

Often we see trends come and go, but we don’t tend to give them much thought. Most of the time, when some new clothing line or hairdo becomes popular, we may notice them quickly, but other trends can fly under our radar. Unfortunately, these trends go beyond a new hairstyle or way of dress but rather prompt our children to try dangerous activities. As you are about to see, parents must keep up with these underground trends because the safety of your children may well depend on this knowledge. We all can remember those strange childhood crazes when we were kids. Most of the time, the majority of them were harmless, and they would always come and go. We’ve seen children go nuts over monster trading card games such as Pokémon or Yu-Gi-OH! Or, sometimes they just have to have the newest toy or videogame. But every once in awhile, there’s a trend that comes along (usually starting with an online video) that can be hazardous to your child’s health. One of the more dangerous tends out there is making DIY slime, which has been around for quite some time. Since slime is such a popular toy, there are now hundreds of online recipes on how to make it at home. Most parents tend to allow their children to play with this oozy substance because it keeps busy and away from video games and TV. However, at a sleepover party, a child was seriously harmed by the slim she was playing with. Her name is Kathleen Quinn, and she was with a few of her friends who decided to play with some homemade slime. That’s when the unexpected happened. As Kathleen was playing with the slime, her hands began to hurt. She experienced a burning sensation that kept getting worse. The little girl tried to run her hands under cold water, but it took a while before the pain went away. By the end of the ordeal, she had 3rd-degree burns on her fingers.

“She was crying in pain. ‘My hands hurt. My hands hurt!’ And we looked at them and they were covered in blisters.” – Quinn’s mother

They took Kathleen to the doctor, and he asked the little girl what slime she was playing with. It turns out the slime in question was homemade from a mixture of school glue and borax (sodium borate). Handling borax for too long can cause burns. It is not something that should ever be handled by children, and it definitely should never be made into a toy. Borax is harmful to skin, and it can also affect breathing passages, nasal cavities, eyes, and the respiratory tract. Also, children don’t tend to be as hygienic as adults, which means they can be at even more risk of injury. Quinn might have been one of the first stories to tell, but hers was the last. There are many similar stories about children who were burned playing with homemade slime. It turns out, the reports of these injuries extend beyond the United States. A child in the UK had a similar experience. Mother of UK child YouTuber DeeJay Jemmett said that her daughter had been playing with homemade slime when her skin started peeling off.

“Within 48 hours, her skin had started to peel off. From there it got worse.”

They had to call in a plastic surgeon to restore the girl’s hands. The burns can also extend beyond the hands and spread to the arms and face. One major problem is the lack of information that comes when they try one of these online recipes. If the mixture has sodium borate in it, the child could be putting themselves in, and an extraordinary amount of danger and not realize it until it is too late. Another popular ingredient in homemade slime that can cause harm is contact lens solution. Parents need to stay extra vigilant, especially if their child likes to experiment with DIY projects. Some of these trends can have lasting consequences.