5-year-old suffers severe chemical burn caused by toy, Ohio mom says

ANDERSON TWP., Ohio — An Ohio mother said her 5-year-old son is recovering after suffering a severe chemical burn from a toy.

Sarah Spears said she bought a water gel timer at Walgreens, a sensory toy marketed toward children, our news partners at WCPO reported. She said her son was playing with the toy when some of the liquid inside leaked onto his lap.

“At the time he was wearing a pair of dark sweatpants, so it just looked wet to me,” Spears told WCPO.

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A few hours later, she said her son started complaining about pain.

“I took a look, and he had a fairly large chemical burn,” she said.

She immediately called her son’s doctor and they suggested calling poison control.

“Poison control was very helpful. They instructed us to give him a cool bath, rinse all the chemicals off,” she said.

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Spears said the day it happened, it looked like a really bad sunburn, and in the days that followed it progressed into more of a “peeling and blistering” and then “severe open blisters,” WCPO reported.

Spears reached out to Walgreens to notify them about what happened, and they followed up within a few days.

“They asked very vague questions like ‘What was the item? Do you have the receipt?’ And that’s pretty much been the extent of the response from Walgreens at this point,” she said.

Spears told WCPO it could’ve been much worse, especially if the liquid got into her child’s eyes or mouth.

“So many people we know have toys just like this,” she said. “They’re on Amazon, Target, you name it.”

Spears wanted to share her story to prevent this from happening to another child.

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