ANDERSON TOWNSHIP, Ohio — An Anderson Township mother said her 5-year-old son is recovering from a severe chemical burn caused by a toy.
"As a parent, you assume this toy is safe, completely nontoxic, as it is marketed to kids," said Sarah Spears.
Spears said she bought a water gel timer, a sensory toy marketed toward children, at Walgreens. 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," she said.
A few hours later, she said her son began complaining about pain.
"I took a look, and he had a fairly large chemical burn," Spears said.
She immediately called her son’s doctor.
"The pediatrician suggested we call poison control," Spears said. "Poison control was very helpful. They instructed us to give him a cool bath, rinse all the chemicals off."
Spears said the day it happened, it looked like a really bad sunburn.
"The days that followed, it progressed into more of like a peeling and a blistering, and today he’s left with pretty severe open blisters," she said.
Spears reached out to Walgreens to let them know 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 said 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.
“I think most parents myself included had no idea there was any sort of risk with this,” Spears said.
WCPO reached out to Walgreens to see if they still have this toy on their shelves. They said they’re looking into the incident and working to provide us with a statement that was not received before this story's publication.
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