A two-year-old boy was left screaming in agony after being burned by a laundry pod which became stuck to the inside of his clothes.
Little Sam Clusker may need specialist treatment after the detergent burned through two layers of clothing when it failed to dissolve properly in the washing machine.
The toddler spent several hours in hospital being treated by medics on Sunday before he was bandaged up and sent home.
Now his horrified mother has issued a warning to other parents to check their laundry thoroughly after using liquid pods to prevent another child from going through a similar ordeal.
Cheyenne Manson, from Dunfermline, said Sam had been out for the day with his grandmother and would not let anybody touch him when he returned.
“He was crying and when I took off his jumper and vest, they were actually burned through,” she said.
“The seam of his woolly jumper still had bits of detergent on it where the pod had obviously not dissolved and it had soaked through and burned him.
“He was burned in his armpit, down his side and on a bit of his arm.
“Every time I went to pick him up he was screaming.”
Staff at Victoria Hospital in Kirkcaldy spent 20 minutes showering Sam and when that failed to remove all the chemicals from his skin, he was treated with pouches of saline solution.
“He was in hospital for six or seven hours,” said Cheyenne.
“He’s still sensitive to touch.
“He hasn’t blistered so they don’t think he’ll scar but he has to go back on Friday to see a plastics specialist to see if there’s any tissue damage.”
She added: “When you take your washing out the machine you don’t normally look at it, you just hang it up.
“I’m not telling people not to use the pods but please, just check the seams of the clothes after using them. I don’t want this to happen again.”
The pods in question were Fairy Non-Bio and makers Procter and Gamble said they were very sorry to hear about the incident and wished Sam a speedy recovery.
A spokesman said: “Nothing is more important to us than the safety of people who use our products.
“We have taken significant steps to prevent accidents, hand-in-hand with the European Industry Detergents Association and its members, helping to create industry-wide safety programmes…”
Sam’s experience was picked up by Fife Council’s community safety team who reiterated Cheyenne’s warning on their Facebook page.
Service manager Mark McCall said: “We shared this story on our Facebook page to warn and inform Fifers.
“We’ve raised the incident with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Accidents and the Scottish Government and we’ll continue to provide advice on the safe use of liquitabs.”
