Parents beware, for social media has given you yet another reason to worry about your children.
According to the New York Post, kids and teens have suffered nightmarish injuries involving the popular, gel-filled toy NeeDoh.
More specifically, a TikTok trend in which kids microwave the toy has resulted in excessive heating, explosions, and severe burns.
Dr. Alicia Webb, a pediatric emergency medicine physician at Children’s of Alabama, lamented the online fad.
“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,” Webb told the Post.
Dr. Michael Cooper of Northwell’s Staten Island University Hospital amplified Webb’s warning.
“A moment of curiosity or experimentation can lead to injuries that require months of treatment and recovery,” Cooper said. “Awareness, supervision and education remain our best tools for preventing these entirely avoidable burn injuries.”
Have you seen these Needoh toys?
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Schylling, a Massachusetts-based toy maker, manufactures the toy.
“NeeDoh is the gratifying super soft, super stretchy dough filled groovy glob that started a squish sensation! Squeeze it, pull it, smush it, and then watch it return to its original shape,” the company’s website reads.
According to the Post, NeedDoh features a clear manufacturer’s warning: “Do NOT heat, freeze, or microwave, may cause personal injury.”
Alas, children tend not to read manufacturers’ warnings, sometimes with heartbreaking results.
In March, for instance, 7-year-old Scarlett Selby of Missouri followed the TikTok trend by placing her NeeDoh in a microwave. The toy then exploded “and coated her in molten, sticky substance,” according to the Post.
“It all happened so quickly,” her father told Kennedy News at the time. “I heard her scream, and it was like a blood-curdling scream.”
Doctors had to place Scarlett in a medically induced coma.
Likewise, 9-year-old Caleb Chabolla of Illinois followed the trend in January and suffered horrifying burns to his face.
Doctors issue warning over massively popular toy that’s hospitalizing children with excruciating injuries https://t.co/0C2ljNpiRm pic.twitter.com/JbLt3UOmzS
— New York Post (@nypost) July 7, 2026
Caleb’s mother, Whitney Grubb, recalled the post-explosion terror.
“He was crying and just yelling, ‘It burns, it burns,’” she said, per WLS-TV in Chicago, adding that “[t]he right side of his face was kind of melting off, basically.”
Last week, WBZ-TV in Boston aired a segment warning parents about the toy and the TikTok trend.
Jillian Pasciucco, a burn specialist at Shriner’s Hospital in Boston, described what she has encountered.
“[We’re] seeing really small but deep burns from these injuries,” Pasciucco said in a video posted to YouTube, “and they tend to be scattered to places that are difficult, so, the face and the hands in particular, resulting in kids needing dressing changes.”
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Worse yet, not every reported NeeDoh injury stems from the social media trend.
Last month, according to KRQE-TV in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a 13-year-old girl suffered severe burns after her toy exploded from sitting in a hot car for more than four hours.
Katie Spence, the girl’s mother, recalled the scene.
“She’s like get it off me, get it off,” Spence said, adding that she could do little more than rush her daughter to the hospital for treatment.
“She jumps out of the car and she’s like screaming at the top of her lungs like, ‘Please, Momma, get it off,’” Spence said. “There was people all around. We were trying to get it off and they said don’t take it off because it will rip her skin off. So then I rush her to the nearest children’s hospital.”
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