Kids Are Getting Hectic Chemical Burns Because Of The Instagram Slime Craze

American 11-year-old Kathleen Quinn sustained burns late last month after creating the putty-like mix with borax, a chemical commonly used for house cleaning and laundry purposes.

A post shared by @peachyslimes on Feb 7, 2017 at 11:44am PST

Many online tutorials call for the use of the poisonous product, which is considered safer for use when heavily diluted. Unfortunately for Kathleen, she’d had her hands deep in the mixture every day for months. 

Kathleen told TODAY “I woke up in the middle of the night and my hands were just all wet and they were sticking together and they were blistered.” She was treated at a local hospital, where the docs diagnosed her with second- and third-degree burns. 

Her mother Siobhan said the damage was so severe that she has to swear splints to keep her hands straight. The family hasn’t yet ruled out surgery should her hands remain “kind of in a claw.”

Kathleen’s burns follow a similar incident in the UK, where 10-year-old Deejay Jemmett made slime using fabric detergent as an alternative to borax. Her mother Rebekha D’Stephano said “within 48 hours her skin had started to peel off. From there it got worse.”

D’Stephano even took to Facebook to warn other parents of the dangers of the weird-as-hell phenomenon.

You better believe this whole deal has made its way to Australia, too. Speaking to The Guardian, Melbourne mum Kate Copping said 10-year-old daughter “has been making it nonstop,” and that the family is “constantly” buying slime’s other ingredients to keep up with their in-house slime production.

Copping also said she knew the key ingredient is “kind of like a poison,” but “in the end I gave in and bought the borax.” So, uh, yeah. There’s that.

For what it’s worth, the tactile and visual nature of slime aren’t the only reasons kids are going fucking wild. An entire social media subculture has sprung up around the way it sounds, with dedicated Instagram and YouTube accounts garnering hundreds of thousands of followers.

Chuck your headphones in if you want to feel pure disgust.

skrrt skrrt

A post shared by @peachyslimes on Apr 7, 2017 at 4:58am PDT

In summary: borax can seriously mess you up if you’re exposed to it for too long, and we miss childhood trends that didn’t involve quasi-ASMR weirdness and chemical burns.

Source: Today / Manchester Evening News / The Guardian.
Photo: @waveslimes / Instagram.