Medical professionals have issued an urgent warning after a viral internet trend of microwaving "squishy" toys left several children with severe burns requiring surgery in Scotland.
According to the Royal Hospital for Children (RHC) in Glasgow, six children have been treated for injuries linked to the online craze over the past eight months.
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The trend involves heating the soft, squeezable toys to make them more pliable, which builds internal pressure and causes them to explode.
Burns specialists noted that the gel inside these products remains extremely hot and adheres to human skin, prolonging the burning process and leading to deep, severe injuries.
Children Require Skin Grafts
Among those injured was eight-year-old Joseph Erskine from Clackmannanshire, who required a skin graft on his chest and hand following an incident in May.
His mother, Stephanie Ewing, explained that her son had seen the trend online and started the microwave for a remaining 40-second cycle left by a previous user.
"He had already wiped off the burning gel which had also taken off his skin.
He was saying that his squishy burnt him and we initially thought he meant a chemical burn.
Then he told us that he had put it in the microwave," said Ewing.
Doctors harvested skin from the child's thigh to repair his chest, and he must now avoid direct sunlight on the graft site for two years.
"We were shocked as it had never crossed our minds that he would do that with a toy.
