However, a viral social media challenge involving the toys has resulted in some children being hospitalised for severe burns across the US, with the Nassau County Fire Commission and Fire Marshal’s Office in New York putting out a notice regarding this ‘extremely dangerous’ trend, which they claimed could ‘lead to severe injury or death’.
According to various reports, the challenge involves briefly placing the toy in the microwave to make it more moldable, despite its label explicitly warning against heating, freezing, or microwaving it.
This has resulted in serious injuries, as parents have shared photos of the second- or third-degree burns their children have received after doing so.
According to ABC 7, nine-year-old Caleb Chabolla in Chicago was left with second-degree burns when a Needoh Nice Cube exploded across his face, as his mother Whitney Grub said: “The right side of his face was kind of melting off, basically.”
Meanwhile, in their Facebook post, the Nassau County Fire Commission and Fire Marshal’s Office said that ‘several children around the world have suffered third-degree burns to the face’, including a child in Nassau County who’d suffered ‘second-and-third-degree burns’.
“Toys are intended to be played with, as described on the label. Misusing a product by heating in a microwave, oven, or stovetop is dangerous,” they continued.
“Parents, guardians, and other caretakers are urged to monitor any activities of children when they are in the kitchen. Accidents can happen to an adult in the kitchen, even if they take precautions, so for a child who doesn’t know any better, the risk is even greater.”
The fire marshals aren’t the only ones warning against this trend, as Dr Alicia Webb, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s of Alabama, told The New York Post that parents should stay vigilant about the ‘serious risk’ these trends can pose to children.
“Parents need to be aware of this trend and all dangerous social media challenges because they can pose a serious risk to children, and the children participating are not yet mature enough to recognize the danger for themselves,” she said.
She added that the hot toys can ‘easily explode, causing burns to the face, eyes, mouth, body, and can even cause internal damage if the hot substance is swallowed’.
Meanwhile, Dr Michael Cooper, a director of service for the burn unit at Northwell’s Staten Island University Hospital, said that children’s skin is especially delicate and ‘even a brief contact with a hot substance can cause significant tissue damage’.
Webb also reiterated the long-lasting health complications that a child could experience from a severe burn, including scarring or, in some cases, permanent disfigurement, which may require treatments such as skin grafts and specialised burn care.
At the same time, Cooper further noted that burn injuries could result in ‘long-term psychological and cosmetic effects that may last well beyond the initial recovery period’.
In a statement to Tyla, a Schylling representative said that ‘ensuring the safety of our consumers is fundamental for Schylling’, adding: “We are disappointed to see there has been a trend on social media demonstrating misuse of our NeeDoh products. Misusing a NeeDoh product by microwaving, heating, or freezing is dangerous and could cause injury to the consumer.”
They continued to say that they had partnered with social media companies to ‘remove influential content containing NeeDoh product misuse’, as well as including ‘a safety warning on NeeDoh packaging and our all e-commerce listings to help combat product misuse’.