A father was left horrified as he watched his seven-year-old daughter suffer severe burns when a popular squishy toy exploded in her hands after being frozen and microwaved—part of a dangerous TikTok trend that went horribly wrong. What began as a seemingly harmless experiment turned into every parent’s worst nightmare when young Scarlett Selby, from a suburb near St. Louis, Missouri, decided to try modifying her toy after seeing similar videos online.
Scarlett, like many children her age, loved her NeeDoh squishy toy. These stress-relief toys, made by Schylling Toys, are colorful, soft, and fun to squeeze. However, despite their innocent appearance, they come with clear warnings: “Do NOT heat, freeze, or microwave, may cause personal injury.” Unfortunately, that didn’t stop social media users from pushing the limits. Videos had been circulating on TikTok of people freezing or microwaving the toys, claiming it made them feel more squishy or entertaining to use. Some users even bit into the toys or cut them open, disregarding any potential risks.
Eager to try it herself, Scarlett placed her NeeDoh cube in the freezer overnight. The next day, she microwaved it briefly, following what she saw in the viral videos. Her 44-year-old father, Josh Selby, recounted the events with great distress. “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,” he told the New York Post. “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.” But in an instant, everything went terribly wrong.
As Scarlett removed the toy from the microwave, it suddenly exploded, spraying her with scalding goo. The sticky substance covered her chest, mouth, and chin, causing excruciating pain and severe burns. “It all happened so quickly,” Selby recalled. “I heard her scream, and it was like a blood-curdling scream. It had exploded all over her chest, mouth, and chin.” Describing the aftermath, he compared the burning goo to napalm. Desperate to help, Selby rushed to brush the bubbling goo off his daughter’s skin and clothes, but the substance was incredibly thick and adhesive, making it almost impossible to remove.
“Whenever I touched her, my hand stuck to her,” he said. “It was really thick and sticky. I ripped her shirt off of her because it was stuck to her shirt as well.” The incident, which occurred about five months ago, left him emotionally shattered. “I was a complete mess. She spent a week in the hospital, and for three days of that she was in a coma. I don’t think I could speak to anybody without crying the entire time.”
Scarlett’s mother, Amanda Blankenship, 35, rushed with Selby to get their daughter to the hospital. “She was in so much pain. 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,” Blankenship said, according to the Daily Mail. When they arrived at St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Scarlett was placed in a medically induced coma for three days while doctors worked to stabilize her condition. Due to the burns on her lips, a feeding tube had to be inserted.
After a week, Scarlett was released from the hospital, but her healing process was far from over. While doctors chose not to perform a skin graft at that time, Amanda fears that might change. The scarring on her daughter’s body is significant, both physically and emotionally. “She gets very self-conscious, and I’ll see her trying to cover her scar up with her shirt when we’re out in public sometimes, or she’ll come home from school and say another kid asked her about it,” Amanda explained. “I tell her she doesn’t need to be embarrassed about it. She went through a lot, and it was a terrible, terrible accident.” Amanda often finds Scarlett quietly crying after baths, staring at her reflection in the mirror, processing the trauma she endured.
Josh Selby, deeply impacted by the incident, has been vocal in warning other parents about the dangers of these toys. “I would have never thought of something exploding outside of the microwave like that,” he said. “For that to happen to my daughter was the hardest thing that I’ve gone through.” He now urges anyone with similar toys to discard them immediately. “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 explained.
Since the accident, videos promoting the microwave challenge with NeeDoh toys have been removed from TikTok. The platform states it prohibits “the display or promotion of dangerous activities and challenges or violence. This may include dares, games, tricks, inappropriate use of dangerous tools, eating substances that are harmful to one’s health, or similar activities that may lead to significant physical harm.”
This heartbreaking incident serves as a sobering reminder of the influence of social media on young children and the risks that can arise from viral challenges. What seemed like a fun idea turned into a life-altering event for Scarlett and her family. The scars, both visible and hidden, will remain with them forever.
What do you think about what happened to this beautiful little girl? Please share this story with others to help raise awareness about the potential dangers of heating squishy toys and the importance of closely monitoring what children see and try from social media.
