A family in Alabama is sounding the alarm on a social media craze after their son’s body was scarred for life by a popular children’s toy.
Thirteen-year-old Eli Blackmon was only 11 when a video on TikTok caught his attention. The clip showed people microwaving NeeDoh, a squishy, stretchy stress toy, to make it feel softer to the touch.
Curiosity got the better of him. He had seen someone else try the trick first without any apparent harm. “I thought it was harmless because an adult tried it and nothing happened,” he told Fox News Digital.
His sister handled the heated toy briefly after it came out of the microwave. Then Blackmon took his turn. What happened next changed his life.
“As soon as I squeezed it, it burst and the hot gel exploded onto my neck, chest and hands,” he said.
Third-degree burns immediately covered his neck and chest. His mother, Fallon Blackmon, rushed toward the sound of her son’s screams, unable to make sense of what was happening.
“At first I was just feeling frantic because I wasn’t sure what was going on because he was just screaming and not communicating,” she said.
Training kicked in almost immediately for the boy’s parents. His father works as a fire medic, and his mother handles emergency calls professionally. Even that background couldn’t fully shield her from the moment.
“I had a little knowledge of how serious it was. That obviously didn’t keep me from panicking on the inside,” she said.
Nobody in the household had heard of the microwave trend before that day.
Fallon Blackmon says a simple conversation could have prevented the entire incident. “If I was aware, we would have had a conversation about not doing it,” she said.
Overwhelmed by pain and fear, the young boy believed he was dying in front of his family. “I thought I was going to die. I kept telling my parents, ‘I don’t want to die, I’m sorry,’ and I that I loved them,” he said.
An ambulance carried Blackmon to a nearby children’s hospital, where staff soon transferred him to a specialized burn unit. There, medical teams began an intensive regimen of wound care and debridement.
Skin grafts, a typical treatment for burns this severe, were ruled out entirely. Physicians worried the procedure posed too great a danger to his airway, according to his mother.
For four straight months, Blackmon returned to the burn unit weekly. Doctors removed dead skin and treated his wounds during each visit, all without pain relief.
“This was done with no pain meds or numbing, so all his follow-up appointments were very painful,” Fallon Blackmon said.
Complications piled up as the healing process continued. Granulation tissue developing around the scar forced doctors to perform additional chemical burns to manage it.
Meanwhile, bandages irritated his skin so badly that a rash developed, eventually becoming a staph infection.
Even his digestive system suffered consequences. Fluid loss from the injury triggered gastrointestinal problems that lingered for months, his mother said.
Blackmon’s competitive jiu-jitsu career came to a halt during his recovery, keeping him off the mat for months.
Meanwhile, his family absorbed the financial weight of the ordeal, facing thousands of dollars in medical bills, doctor visits and wound care supplies.
Rather than stay silent, mother and son have chosen to go public with their story to protect other children.
Fallon Blackmon is pushing parents to start the conversation early, regardless of whether their kids are active on social media. “Even if they don’t have social media, kids in school are hearing it from other kids,” she said.
Managing the scar is now part of Blackmon’s daily routine. He stretches, moisturizes and massages the area to keep his neck mobile.
Support from those closest to him has kept his spirits high despite the visible injury. “It hasn’t really changed my confidence because all my friends and family are very supportive and tell me my scar is cool,” he said.
Blackmon has a direct warning for peers tempted to try the trend themselves. “Don’t do it! It’s stupid! It causes so much pain and other problems,” he said.
His caution extends well beyond this single viral challenge. “Actually, just don’t do any trends on TikTok, even if you think they are harmless,” he said. “Talk to your parents.”
His mother says any backlash she receives online for sharing their story is worth it if it stops another child from being permanently scarred and traumatized.
TikTok has addressed the incident, with a spokesperson for TikTok USDS Joint Venture telling Fox News Digital that content encouraging dangerous behavior breaks the platform’s Community Guidelines.
The company says it removes such videos as soon as they’re identified.
